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Thank you for coming to our site!

STEMTradingCards.org hosts a database of incredible people in STEM careers who are featured on Science Delivered’s STEM Trading Cards, as well as free resources for K-5+ science for classrooms and families.

(STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math)

Science Delivered is a small 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in San Diego and with a branch in Virginia. We are focused on elementary science education and promoting equitable access to science for young learners. Find our organization website here.

Students enjoying an activity in an in-class science lab

Students enjoying an activity in an in-class science lab

How Did STEM Trading Cards get started?
Science Delivered provides science enrichment labs to elementary school classrooms. Students frequently asked if they could take home the lab coats, googles, or other supplies we brought for them and we hated always having to say no! We wanted to give them something - but what was an affordable and meaningful take-home for the 1,000+ students we see multiple times a year? (No plastic junk please!) Enter: STEM Trading Cards!

We started small, creating cards featuring seven people well-known in STEM fields, some were known to our students but most were not. We gave students 2-3 cards after every visit and they could trade with each other. Students loved the cards. Since we visit classrooms up to three times a year, it soon became obvious we needed to add more people. To our delight, many adults and older students also loved the cards, and we realized the STEM Trading Cards was a project worth investing in.

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Growing the Project
We quickly realized scaling up the project meant collaborating with featured “STEMists” and getting permission to feature them on the cards. This definitely made things more complicated, but luckily so many people we’ve contacted have been extremely generous with their time. The first person who we asked about being featured was Marine Biologist Melissa Cristina Marquez - she said yes! In short order we had several more people aboard. We were able to make contact with two of our original seven; Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal, a virologist and the first to clone the HIV virus, and Engineer and Super Soaker Inventor Dr. Lonnie Johnson.

2nd graders in one of our art and science labs. Students create imaginary animals with real adaptive traits.

2nd graders in one of our art and science labs. Students create imaginary animals with real adaptive traits.

Supporting Science Programs
STEMTradingCards.org is a free resource to all, but people can also purchase cards which helps support our educational programming. Most of our programming is free to schools and students - but it’s not to us! Science Delivered’s core program is “It’s Elementary;” we bring lab coats and supplies into K-5 classroom to do fun, hands-on labs. We’ve collaborated with multiple schools and teachers for years and the program is very much in-demand. We also run a high school program, CAPTS, where older students get trained in teaching science and actually go into elementary school classrooms to teach!

(During COVID we are providing take-home science kits and providing online resources, here and here).

If you are interested in purchase - these packs are a wonderful party favor or hand-out at STEM outreach events (when they are allowed again). Please get in touch if you would like to purchase in bulk (15+ packs) and we are happy to work out a substantial discount. You can get an fun, unique STEM favor while supporting science education for kids.

A now-graduated CAPTS student, Rahmiir, holding Dr. Lonnie Johnson’s card. Rahmiir developed two original CAPTS cards.

A now-graduated CAPTS student, Rahmiir, holding Dr. Lonnie Johnson’s card. Rahmiir developed two original CAPTS cards.

What are CAPTS Cards?
CAPTS Cards are STEM Trading Cards developed by high school students in our CAPTS program (Communication and Presentation Through Science). Students who stay with the program for two years have the option of creating these cards. Three students have created a total of eight cards, with two more in the works. Students research and pick the STEMists they wanted to feature, contact them to ask for permission and materials, and write (with guidance) the copy on the cards.

With this project CAPTS students begin to build a STEM network, learn project management, and realize people featured in newspaper articles and even Noble Prize Winners, are often accessible to them!

Finding Role Models
With the STEM Trading Cards, we aim to feature a wide variety of STEM careers and the diverse group of people who contribute to various STEM fields. The majority of the people on our cards are practicing STEM right now, so students can imagine themselves in those same careers. Importantly, we strive to find people who support education, diversity efforts, and environmental conservation. In this way the people featured on the cards are role models in STEM as well as life. We hope to show students at a young age that they can have a career studying bats, building robots, or even studying math and that all students can find a STEM role model that resonates with them.