Small team, Calgary, one job.

Why we started

We started out building a cheap, honest science instrument for classrooms. The more we looked at how science is taught in Alberta, the clearer it became that the gadget wasn't the hard part. The hard part is the time it takes to turn a new curriculum into a lesson that works on a Tuesday afternoon, with thirty kids and whatever is in the supply cupboard.

So we're building those lessons, and giving them away.

Why "Fieldbook"

A fieldbook is the notebook a scientist, surveyor or explorer carries into the field. Everything goes in it: the question, the guess, the measurements, the sketch, the surprise. It's where you work things out for yourself.

That's what every lesson asks kids to do, whether the field is the schoolyard, the classroom or the kitchen table. Every classroom is a field.

What we believe

• Hands first. Kids should do the experiment, not just watch one.
• Start with a real question. If a kid wouldn't ask it, we don't build a lesson around it.
• Honest science. We say what an experiment can and can't show. A messy result, explained well, is real science.
• Teachers' time matters most. Every minute you spend decoding a plan is a minute you're not teaching.
• No student data. Students never sign up for anything.
• Indigenous knowledge is not ours to write. Where a lesson draws on First Nations, Métis or Inuit knowledge, it will be made with Indigenous educators and knowledge keepers, and credited to them. Until then, we leave it out rather than get it wrong.