Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie: Michael Paolucci, founder and CEO of Slooh

On the new episode of the Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie podcast, the host talks about the importance of astronomy and exploring space with his special guest Michael Paolucci, founder and CEO of Slooh. The company’s gamified education platform teaches students to explore space via a network of 12 online telescopes located on mountaintops in the Canary Islands and Chile. 

Paolucci created The Online Telescope, the world’s only scalable solution for astronomy education. Slooh makes real-world, real-time space exploration accessible for students by providing access to online telescopes in the classroom that students can personally control and capture their own photos with. It’s a remarkable invention that brings access to space to schools and students, who don’t have the resources to obtain it otherwise. 

Their conversation explains the importance of allowing children to vastly expand their imaginations, to search beyond their immediate environments and enjoy a component of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) that is too often off limits because of their socioeconomic status and geographical location. The Online Telescope is enabling students to explore new worlds as if they were part of the crew on the Star Trek Enterprise or Discovery by becoming the new Guardians of the Galaxy as they follow a game-like learning progression, earning badges and scoring Gravity Points along the way.

 In 2013, Dr. Calvin Mackie founded STEM NOLA, a New Orleans-based, non-profit committed to expanding STEM education at churches, community centers and schools, particularly in communities of color. His goal is to make STEM education available in ALL communities. In July 2021, Dr. Mackie launched STEM Global Action, a campaign and network of affiliates that pursues STEM education for children, parents and communities across the U.S., and abroad. His initiatives have impacted more than 100,000 students, 20,000 families and 2,150 schools across the U.S., and in five other countries.