Mbadika (bah-GEE-Kah), which means idea, is a MIT-founded non-profit founded on the principle that talent is universal, opportunity is not. By harnessing STEM, we provide opportunities for ideas and those who create them to impact our world. As inventors at heart, we believe in the power of STEM education to unlock the next generation of innovators.

During the pandemic, schools across the globe have been challenged with continuing education remotely, particularly in the STEM fields where lab access and basic supplies are hard to come by. Boston Public Schools – particularly those in Roxbury and East Boston, home to predominantly Black and Latino students- have been disproportionately affected by this turn of events. With racial disparities in education now further amplified by the pandemic, we’ve teamed up with our fellow MIT colleagues, the Ministry of Supply, to support these students for a collaborative project appropriately named Mº Lab.

Since 2018, Mbadika and the Ministry of Supply have collaborated on various STEM initiatives, including MLAB (Mbadika Laboratory), in order to create opportunities for Boston youth to explore STEM career pathways as well as bring their ideas to reality.

This year, through Mº Lab, we’ve decided to answer the call by our students to deliver a high-quality, engaging, and educational STEM experience at home. The result; The Mº Lab Field Kit. 

The Mº Lab Field Kit is an at-home STEM project kit that teaches kids all about the basics of product design and development through fabric science. The kit invites inquisitive minds to become “Mº Lab Secret Agents” – learning about material science, the chemistry of dyeing, and manufacturing through a microscope while building their own gear (i.e. face mask) for a “top secret mission” in our new normal. 

For this Giving Tuesday, December 1st, we’ve produced over 200 of these kits to be donated through our buy-one-give-one program to Boston Public School students this Winter. 

Our mission this Winter, foster creativity and usher in a new generation of science lovers inside despite the situation outside.

Each Mº Lab Field Kit includes all tools and materials needed to complete the [15] STEM projects, including a comprehensive 32-page workbook, making it perfect for learning at home.

However, despite being inspired by the greatest fictional spy in film history, we don’t want to keep this project to ourselves.

In order to increase access to the Mº Lab Field Kit, the Mº Lab Field Notebook, which highlights all the projects in the Mº Lab Field Kit will be publicly available on December 8th, along with a “shopping list” of materials to buy – some that families can already find at home- in order to explore fabric science. 

Want to get started? Download our Mº Lab Field Notebook for FREE.