May 25, 2022 • 29 mins
In this episode, Eric sits down with Ricky Mason, CEO of BrainSTEM. Ricky shares his passion for inspiring students into science careers, and his path from an engineering career with organizations like the Department of Defense, NASA, and the CIA to starting BrainSTEM, an education program that develops creative digital tools to enable all teachers and students to dive deeper into STEM content. Ricky and Eric talk about representation in science classrooms and the importance of embedding fun within K–8 science content!
Check out BrainSTEM here!
Join Science Connections: The Community on Facebook!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I feel like, um, comfort is where dreams go to
die.
And, um, I'm still dreamingevery night.
So I'll wake up, chasing them.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to science connections.
I'm your host.
Eric Cross.
My guest today is Ricky Mason.
Ricky is an engineer whosecareer included lead roles at
the department of defense, NASA,and the CIA Ricky transitioned
to education as an adjunctfaculty at the university of
Kentucky.
And while there he founded brainstem, an ed tech company that
(00:29):
developed a 3d virtual reality.
Metaverse for stem educationtoday, brain stem serves public
school districts, privateschools, and non-profits.
And in this episode we discusswhat led Ricky to creating brain
stem, meta university, and howhe's using the metaverse to
transform stem learning forstudents.
And now please enjoy myconversation with Ricky Mason,
(00:52):
how did you, so like go maybegoing back well, doing your
origin story, and maybe you cantalk about it, but brother, you
don't sleep.
Talk about keep making movesyour hashtag.
I mean, I was, I was looking atyour LinkedIn profiles, looking
at your details.
You get after it, I was, I wasgetting tired, just reading it.
I was like John Hopkins,electrical engineering, real
(01:12):
estate, starting companies.
You must have that gene whereit's like four hours of sleep
and then you're like, ready togo.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, man, my mom told me if I, if I didn't stay
busy, then I'm in trouble.
So when I was about 14, she toldme that I said, well, mama, I
guess I'm gonna stay busy then.
And um, and yeah, man, that'sjust been my life.
It's um, I feel like if I don'tkeep making moves, then I'm I'm
in trouble.
So, uh, I feel like, um, comfortis where dreams go to die and,
(01:41):
um, I'm still dreaming everynight, so I'll wake up chasing
them.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I feel like a kindred spirit with you.
So the thing that were youalways interested in stem or
like, was there something thatlike a, a moment or a a year
were that you remember where youwere like, this is, this is my
jam.
This is what I'm gonna get into.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, man, I would, um, where, when it really
clicked for me was in the fifthgrade, um, I was at a school
assembly and, um, an IBMengineer came in and he brought
a robot and he programmed itwith punch card right on the
stage.
And, um, I got the opportunityto come up and, uh, you know,
put one of the punch cards inthe robot to program it.
(02:17):
And I asked him, I'm like, whatis your job?
He said, I'm a roboticsengineer.
And I'm like, mom, I went homeright after that assembly and
said, mom, that's what I wannado, become a robotics engineer.
And, uh, my mom would take me tothe libraries.
Well, I, I felt like I wasgetting outta Bible study on
Wednesdays by going to the, tothe, to the library.
So, um, I went there and Istarted researching robots.
(02:39):
And at the time the robots thatwere popular were all being sent
to space.
And it's the, it was thespiritless, it was, um, being
sent to Mars.
So those, uh, robots and I said,mom, well, I guess I gotta
become an astronaut if I'm gonnabe a robotics engineer.
And, um, that's kind of what setme out on that dream.
And my mom started trying tofind, um, outlets for me to get
(03:00):
involved in stem, but it wasreally tough to find those
outlets, you know, kind of inthat, especially fifth to eighth
grade, uh, range, um, here inKentucky.
So that was kind of where itstarted.
Um, for me man, when I knew thatyeah, engineering is what I,
what I wanna do.
What
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Does an electrical engineer do?
I, I imagine there's differenttypes of specialties, but like
what did you, was theresomething that you specialize in
that you focused on or was it,is it just kind of like a
generalist field?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, so, um, I would say, yeah, man, it's a huge
field.
So you could be doing anythingfrom, you know, power, like
power coming into your, yourhouse.
So those large power systems toall the way down to
nanotechnology mm-hmm, um, and
microchips, I, I like to tellpeople, um, I'm a real full
stack engineer, so my wheelhouseis kind of from the PCB, the
(03:43):
little green computer chips, allthe way to the cloud.
Okay.
Over my career, I've had somepretty cool jobs.
Um, kind of one of those thingswas I was a test engineer for
the army.
So I got to test weapons up atAberdeen, improving ground for
the army.
So I got to drive those weaponsand, um, test them before they
went to theater.
Um, there, um, after that, um, Iworked at, um, United launch
(04:04):
lines down at Cape Canaveralwhere I launched five rockets.
So I was a part of theelectrical ground systems team
there where, um, we wereresponsible for all of the
electrical systems on the rocketwhile it was on the pad.
So, um, monitoring thetemperature of the rocket, the
fuel, the, um, the entire systemfor safety, um, while it was, um
, on that pad.
(04:25):
And then finally I worked at theCIA as a computer engineer, um,
building, um, data centers andkind of as a computer, a data
center architect for some of our, um, remote systems and
virtualizing our systems.
So kind of had a broad spectrumof, of things there.
And then finally coming back tothe university of Kentucky as
research, engineer and faculty,um, I developed drone technology
(04:48):
for monitoring, uh, crops.
So flying drones over crops with, uh, LIDAR, just like
self-driving cars with, um, highdefinition cameras to pull in,
um, data about those crops tohelp farmers, um, determine
about pesticides, um,fertilizers and the overall
health of kind of their cropsfrom a remote location.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's so it's so neat to hear you talk about it and to
see how this is all built up to,to what you do now with brain
stem.
How would you explain what brainstem is?
I know that's your, that's kindof your, your baby right now and
what you've been working on for,for a few years.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, man, we started brain stem in 2019 officially,
but, um, I would say brainstemhas been, uh, almost 10 years in
coming.
Um, while I was in undergrad, Iplayed football at the
university of Kentucky.
So, but I got hurt going into mysophomore year and that kind of
shattered my, you know, proddreams of football mm-hmm
and that's when Ireally got back into, um,
(05:44):
engineering.
One of my professors asked me tocome to a robotics competition
and I saw these third gradersand sixth graders programming
robots.
And I'm like, oh my God, they'reprogramming robots.
And I have no idea how to codeor what to, you know, do with
these things.
And where was this at?
When I was a kid?
And, um, so I immediately boughtone of those robots and taught
(06:05):
myself how to program itum, and then we started a
robotics team in Lexington, um,there at a church.
And, um, we got a sponsorshipfrom Lexmark to start that team.
And that was kind of my firstleap into, you know, stem and
teaching stem and creatingprograms for students in stem.
I did that in undergrad and likeI said, fast forward 10 years
later, I'm teaching at theuniversity of Kentucky and we're
(06:26):
struggling to, you know, recruitstem students.
Why aren't students going intostem?
I hear too many adults tell me,oh man, I wish I would've done
engineering.
Or I started out in engineering,but I left engineering or I wish
I would, could go back to schoolfor engineering or learn, learn
to code.
And I'm like, I asked them like,why didn't you do this?
What, what happened?
And often it's like, it was themath.
(06:47):
It was, oh, I didn't get into ituntil I was in college.
And I'm like, well, that's thekey.
I knew I wanted to do this inthe fifth grade.
And I started with a plan in thefifth grade to achieve these
goals and dreams.
So, and I started doing thatresearch and realizing that the
same problem existed that I had,there was no outlet for kids to
get involved in stem.
(07:08):
And so many kids have anaffinity for stem at an early
age.
So we started brain stem toprovide access to stem education
and exposure mm-hmmto, um, stem, careers, stem
professionals, mm-hmm um, and just to
stem fields as a whole, becausetoo often kids, um, may know
about the term engineer or theterm scientists, but they don't
(07:32):
really know what those people door have a strong connection with
the field or have any hands onprojects that they kind of done
around those things or metanyone like me.
I didn't meet an engineer untilI was in college.
So that has really beenimpactful.
Um, for some of the studentsthat we've been able to, to
touch.
I had a family reach out to me.
They moved to Lexington fromCalifornia and they were like,
(07:54):
man, I really want my ninthgrade son to get involved in
engineering.
So we started a weekend programwith, um, that one student and,
um, it went amazing.
Like we competed in, uh, sciencefairs, we applied for different
college programs and things likethat.
So it became an entire likementorship, uh, program that it
turned into.
(08:15):
And I'm proud to say that a yearago.
Um, he actually graduated, uh,with his bachelor's in
electrical engineering from Yorkside of town, U C S B.
It was just awesome to actuallysee this come full circle.
And that's kind of one of thefirst, uh, things that we did
before we actually formalized asbrain stem university.
And
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What will be like your elevator pitch for a
teacher?
If you were gonna say, this iswhat brain stem does.
I, I have the luxury of goingthrough it on the site, but
since we're on a podcast, howwould you kind of pitch it to
people letting them know?
Like what, what does it do?
Who does it serve?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah.
So brain stem provides stemcurriculum and stem magnets for
schools and nonprofits lookingfor to increase access to stem
for K through 12 students.
Um, we also have launched ourbrain stem, meta university, a
metaverse product for teachersto take their 2d Google
classroom and convert it into a3d metaverse classroom where
(09:10):
students can collaborate duringa 3d class.
So all of your students show upas their avatars that they can
select from our inventory of 150avatars and enjoy class in a 3d
gameified Minecraft like
Speaker 2 (09:26):
World.
So I made my avatar by the way.
Oh, it's, it's kind of tight.
It's I have to say it's kind oftight.
Hey, I'm gonna share.
So those of you in the podcastsI'll share it so you can see it.
You're not gonna be able to seeit right now, but since I have
the man himself, uh, I gottashare it with him just so I can
give him get a reaction.
So can you see that?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
,
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's so good.
It it's, I feel like, I feellike I wanna look like him
though.
I want, I want him in real life.
Like I want be able to switch tolooking like my avatar
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That was the first thing that I jumped on.
When I went on your site wasmaking the avatar and I had so
much fun doing it.
It actually, I actually tooklonger than I probably wanna
admit cuz I was like customizedand everything.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, man.
It's so fun.
And that's exactly what, youknow, when you can show up as
the person you want, it changesyour whole, your whole being,
like I've seen kids that arequiet in class.
Mm-hmm they show upas their avatar.
They're talkative.
They're asking questions.
They're moving around the room,interacting with other kids.
I feel like it's almost like asuperpower just to put your
(10:24):
avatar on.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So what is something that a teacher could have their
students go and learn or do ifthey, if they signed up,
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Let's kick it off.
So how we started with themetaverses teaching, uh, coding.
So our first class was Minecraftand Python coding in the
metaverse.
So students showed up in themetaverse with our virtual
instructor, that instructor leda lecture in the metaverse and
then those students couldcollaborate on their Python, uh,
games.
So they created and built thegame in Python.
(10:54):
They, we shared those games inthe metaverse and uh, we have
our leaderboards that are in themetaverse, as they're completing
these challenges, includingthese games, that's sharing them
back in the metaverse with otherstudents and getting that
feedback on their game.
So we've seen huge excitementfrom students when I can come
back in and see my friends worklike too often, students don't
(11:14):
get to see their work and that'smotivation to do better when I
like Jim's gonna see my work.
It's amazing.
Um, to see, um, that motivationwhen students, um, are sharing
their work with other kids andnot just their parent are just
them and the teacher are seeingtheir, their grades.
I, I, it's been really cool tosee you
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Have that genuine audience too, like that, that
real time feedback.
And then like an authenticaudience.
I, for students that makeseverything seem, it takes it up
a notch.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, man.
And then as we have been builton this platform, so like you
said with that avatar, so thinkif you created a really cool
looking avatar and otherstudents wanted to be that
avatar, we have a way of sharingthat avatar back into the world
and in the inventory so thatother students could then be
your avatar.
Or if you create a world, wecould then share that world back
(12:02):
into the inventory.
So the teacher could have classin a world that you created,
Speaker 2 (12:07):
They're creating content, not just consuming it,
they're actually creatingcontent that could be shared
across like grade levels orstudents.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Well we're gonna say right now it's just within your
classroom.
Oh, okay.
Um, eventually yes, we wantstudents to be able to share
that across, you know, schooldistricts.
Um, at least we think that datawill be probably limited to
those kind of rooms as far asschools go, but you'll be able
to share this across sixthgrade.
We'll be able to see whateveryone in the sixth grade is
doing in their stem class ortheir game development class or
(12:35):
their history class, per se,even if they're giving back a
presentation or, um, what wehave here in JCPS is backpack
skills of success, um, wherestudents are presenting on
things that they're learningthat relate back to core
competencies that the districtis focused on.
And I think that sharing thosein the metaverse and doing those
in the 3d world will, um, be anawesome experience for
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Students.
Are you seeing anything else asfar as those skills that we see
that are needed in, in coding?
Is there something that the VRads that was distinct from maybe
just a kid with a Chromebook in,in his class that it's just him
in isolation doing the coding?
Are, was there any like ahas orsurprises when they're in the VR
world doing this?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Um, I think the biggest thing is we could
actually show them real examplesof code working in other ways.
So, um, example, if we'reworking through loops, we can
show them something looping.
We can relate these functions toreal world things happening in
the VR world so that they cansee and better relate the actual
concept with visuals.
(13:34):
If that makes sense.
So you're in loop Allen the time, the whole time you're learning
about loops, you're immersed inthat kind of world.
What we've seen is studentsreally start to, you know, they
pick up and they click, itclicks a lot faster, um, because
some of these concepts are soabstract mm-hmm um,
for students to understand whenwe can relate them to things in
that world that they see thatare in front of them, that they
(13:55):
can grasp almost, um, before wego to okay.
Type in while parenthesesthey, um, can then, uh, relate
that and, and pick up on thoseclues a lot better after they've
seen those things in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So they can actually visualize it in the metaverse.
Whereas outside of it, it's morejust, just text based coding and
they're, and they're not,they're not isolated.
Like the first thing I'mthinking about is how like, with
my own students, when they'relearning, scratch or Python,
it's not easy to share back andforth because they all are on
individual accounts and they'dhave to go on a different
computer or we'd have to findsome way to publish it.
(14:31):
And then all the kids would haveto access it.
But it sounds like in theadversity classrooms, it's easy
for students in that same classto see each other's work.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah.
So, um, in some of our smallerclassrooms, so most of our
classrooms are, are limited to24 students mm-hmm
and in some of our breakoutclassrooms, we limit them to
about eight students.
Everybody can share their screenso students can share their
screen in the metaverse.
They can share their video inthe metaverse.
They can share documents in themetaverse.
They can share their, like Isaid, their code are anything
(15:00):
that they want to share withother students.
Um, they can kind of do that.
So it's been a really coolproduct, I think for students to
almost find like independence,to work with their, within a
group, in an online setting, asthey've been working through
these problems online and remote, um, it's been really cool to
see how they use the metaverseand break out into their, even
(15:20):
in, in a class, they can go offinto a section because it's all
spacial.
If you walk away, I can't hearkind of your conversation.
So they can go into a littlesection within a metaverse class
and have their own breakout.
Wow.
And a teacher can walk over tothem.
Okay.
You guys are working over here.
Let me walk to my next group,just like in class.
So it's been really cool to seethose students use the metaverse
(15:41):
like
Speaker 2 (15:41):
This.
Just listening to you talk aboutthis.
One of the exciting things aboutlike emerging technologies or
taking what the private sectordoes and, and someone with a
mind like yourself and go, howdo I use this for education?
Like, that's, that's somethingthat like excites me and you're,
you've run with it.
But I just thought about, you'redoing an hour of code.
You've created this metaverseand you can bring in somebody a
(16:03):
professional into the metaverse,but they're in, you know, bay
area, but they could be asoftware engineer for Tesla or,
or Google or anybody.
Could they move around themetaverse and, and take a look
at different students, work andinteract in that way.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, man, we get in there, we take metaverse
selfies.
I drop Lambos in the metaversewe take picture with Lambos.
It's like a complete, we havescavenger hunts in the
metaverse.
Um, and it's a, it's a reallyawesome experience.
And, and that's one of the bigthings I think that is so
powerful is like you said, wecould have that engineer, that
celebrity, we could have TravisScott, you know, in the world
(16:39):
meeting thousands of kidsmotivating them because they met
their, their stem goals.
They met their, you know, theirtesting school goals or, or
whatever.
These are things that kidsreally care about.
Mm-hmm if I get theTravis Scott avatar or the, um,
Elon Musk avatar, because Icompleted the Elon Musk rocket
challenge, like that's huge forme to show up in class as that
(17:02):
avatar, like it's just likeFortnite and it's bringing all
of those mechanics into theclassroom.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And I, when I hear you talk about the metaverse and
I hear you talk about thepotential of where you want to
go with it.
I think about my own students.
And I think about, they wouldreally have a genuine interest
and desire to want to do thisand probably probably be doing
it when they don't have to likeat home at night wanting to go
back into it and interact.
And you're also building thisvirtual community.
I mean, are you seeing that like, cause I'm hearing that
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, man building that community is huge.
And I often tell people all thetime, I want the stem community
to be just like the basketballcommunity, the football
community.
I want students to have thatcamaraderie built around them
for learning stem andparticipating in stem activities
and competitions.
Because when you see studentsout there at a robotics, they
(17:49):
have the same zeal, the samemm-hmm, you know,
everything that you find at afootball competition.
So we just have to get behindthem and back those events with
the same enthusiasm that we backsports.
And that's the environment thatI want to create for stem
students and for that stemcommunity, because I longed for
that community when I was inschool.
(18:10):
And, um, like I said, I had itin football, but I wanted both.
I wanted the best of bothworlds.
I wanted my stem commute, myrobots, my robotics guys, and my
football guys to show uptogether here at the, at the
competition and, um, have a good
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Time.
You're absolutely right.
Like robotics stem, these thingscommunity helps fuel like
people's interest and workingtogether.
And it brings people from theoutside who are seeking that
community.
Like, Hey, my friends are doingthis.
I wanna come kind of check itout.
That's how we recruit a widerswath of our population into it.
So it's not this kind of verynarrow channel of folks who are
going into stem,
Speaker 1 (18:45):
If you can't find that community.
I mean, uh, for me, I felt likeI was the only one playing
football who was interested inrobotics.
So I never told anybody becauseI, I didn't feel like that
related to anybody within myvicinity.
So, um, I kept that to myselfand that's, that's the biggest
thing.
I think if we get these kidsjust talking more about their
(19:06):
interests, because a lot of themare interested in robotics and
space and these stem, uh,topics, but they don't have
anyone that's really nudgingthem or asking them or peeking
their interest kind of in thosespaces and saying, Hey man, it's
okay to, you know, learn aboutrobots.
It's okay to geek out on space.
so that's, um, that'sbeen my goal and, and that's
(19:30):
kind of why I felt like this wasthe time in my career for me to
kind of do this, be a face forstem education and inspire kids
to chase their goals and dreamsover my career.
I've had some really cool, uh,jobs, but I felt like I could
keep doing cool jobs, but I I'm.
I'm like right at the right ageto still connect with those
students and inspire them to, tochase their, their dreams.
(19:53):
Um, and so that's why I feellike right now, man, it's just a
opportune time to, to, to getthese students involved in stem.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We don't get that.
Oftentimes when we're solelydoing like the cool job or
simply in the private sector, wedon't get those experiences as
much as we do when we're able toactually serve our community or
students or take our passion,our skillset and use it to, you
know, serve another person.
I, I hear that like, as, as youdescribe what you're doing now
is like, there's somethingbeyond just, you know, the, the
(20:22):
using your skills and doing coolstuff, but there's something I
hear.
That's helping people andactually doing something you
believe in that this isresonates deeply in you.
And I can hear it as you talkabout
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It.
It's been, um, just amazing to,to actually like chart out that
journey.
Like I said, and like tell kidslike, no man, I'm, I'm from
right up the block from you, cuzI mean, I'm building this back
at home, um, in my hometown.
And that's the reason why I kindof came back to kind of do that
in my hometown because I reallywant to, you know, relate to
those students and inspire, youknow, students here.
(20:53):
Um, nobody thinks abouttechnology coming out of
Kentucky and that's been a, agift and a curse, I guess, with,
uh, launching, you know, brainstem in Kentucky.
When I first started com I said,where is stem education company?
People are asking me what isstem.
So that, um, was, um, where westarted out with this in 2019,
all the way to, you know, Hey,in 2020, we're gonna launch a,
(21:16):
metaverse a metaverse what isthat?
It's been amazing to try tochange the minds of not only
Kentucky ends about stem and theimportance of stem, but the
world that a metaverse company,um, is coming outta Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
the, the work
that you're doing and it, it
exists beyond you and youprobably know this, but as a
black science educator, youknow, out here in San Diego,
there's we don't see people wholook like all of us in this, in
this work often.
And, uh, I, I saw that you hadcreated something, a network
network, group network, andchill.
And that was one of the thingswe had touched on community, but
I, I thought that that was sohuge because cuz we need each
(21:55):
other.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I feel like that was the biggest thing for, for us in
engineering.
Like I showed up to my firstinternship and I'm like, I mean,
my, my boss was cool.
Everything else was cool, but Ijust didn't feel like, Hey, this
is a community for me.
And I almost changed my major,um, because of that.
But I'm glad that I didn't,it's, it's huge to have more of
us represented in, in thesespaces
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And you know, in engineering, especially we look
at the disproportionate, youknow, men versus women.
Like it's not, you know, it'snot just culture, but it's, you
know, gender, all of thesedifferent things.
And if we're gonna change it, Ithink a program like yours that
gets exposure to all kids andmen giving them choice.
What advice would you give tostudents?
Um, or what advice I should say,do you give to students now?
(22:36):
Who, when you see like youryounger self in the different
kind of K12 grades who arethinking about their futures or
they're thinking about stem,what do you say to them?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So, um, my biggest advice man is start now.
Um, whatever that big thing isthat big dream is that you have,
what, what is that?
Now you you're thinking aboutplanes.
You're thinking about robots.
You're thinking about RC cars,whatever that is.
Let's start now.
Let's get you.
Let's get your, get your handson an RC car.
Let's break it.
Let's take it apart.
(23:06):
Let's let's start coding.
Let's start thinking about thoseproblems now.
But the biggest thing is, is, isgetting kids used to solving
tough problems.
Typically, most students thathave an affinity for, you know,
stem and you, you just know thatthat kid's gonna go into stem
they're problem solvers.
They're typically looking andseeking those tough problems and
(23:26):
seeking opportunities to, tolearn.
That's where I feel like it'sparents' jobs to provide that
environment to foster, that,that zeal a five year old kid,
we started our stem program withthem at the beginning of this
month.
First day I come, came in afterI told him I was a rocket
scientist.
And now he's like, well, I wannabe a pilot.
I said, if you pay attention tothis class, we're gonna get you
(23:47):
started on your way to being apilot.
And he knows all the parts of arock and he knows a rock and he
is an oxidizer and he knows thefuselage, the wings, the, the
wing flaps.
He knows all the different partsof the plane and how the forces,
the drag, the lift, the weight.
He knows how those are working.
Cuz we talked about those inclass and he has so much more
confidence and, and it came allto fruition when a kid said,
(24:09):
wow, I thought it was gonna bereally hard to be a rocket, a
robotics engineer.
And I'm like, no, that's notgonna be that hard.
That is exactly what we set outto do.
When we, um, started brain stemwas to break down those barriers
in those walls and build thatconfidence and say, look man,
you can do this.
It's easy
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Society doesn't help much either because one of the,
one of our terms, right, ifsomething's really hard is we
say, or if something's not hard,we say it's not rocket science
that implies that rocket scienceis really hard and inaccessible
when K if kids would hear thatit kind of instills in their
brain.
Okay.
It's really hard.
It's probably too hard for me tothat point to parents.
It sounds like a lot of justexposure, like giving students
(24:46):
the opportunity to be able to beexposed to these things and let,
letting them create wonder from
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It.
Yeah, man, I often I tellparents we're gonna set kids up
to go pro no matter what,
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And those skill sets transfer, whether they're they
decide to go into coding or theydecide to manage a bank, you're,
you're still gonna be dealingwith people.
You're still gonna be problemsolving.
You're still gonna have to comeup with creative solutions to
things.
It sounds like through, througha program like this, they learn
those skills early.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yes.
And I think that one thing thatparents don't think about, we,
we talk about all the stem andwe, we want smart kids, but we
need those soft skills alsowithin stem.
So those competitions gettingthem involved in those
communities with stem studentsis really huge in presenting
their ideas because oftentimes,you know, our stem guys, we're
in a lab working and that's,that's where we love.
(25:33):
And that's where we wanna bebecause we haven't, you know,
been prepared to talk andpresent our ideas.
So I think that's a huge part ofwhat we have to teach our stem
students.
And we do that by providing thatcommunity and those
opportunities for them to, youknow, do
Speaker 2 (25:47):
That thinking about where you, where you are now
looking back on your K-12education.
Were there any teachers thatstood out to you or that
inspired you as I even just saythat you think of a particular
teacher or one or two
Speaker 1 (26:00):
In mind?
When I, I think about my, myteachers, my teachers, um,
really taught me to solve thosetough problems.
And tho those subjects that youdon't kinda like cause I
was always a great student, butuh, my teachers helped me to
focus on those subjects that I,I didn't so much, you know,
enjoy.
So I enjoyed math and science,but English and uh, social
(26:21):
studies, like why do I have tobe here?
I had a particular two teachersduring my high school career
that really supported, you know,me in, in, in that regards and
helping me to be the beststudent all around, um, from
like I said, stem to English andsocial studies.
Um, and uh, making me realizethat I, I have to be a well
rounded student if I'm gonna betruly successful as, as far as
(26:45):
engineering, man, I, I, I wouldsay one guy, my, my teacher,
Nick, BAAR up at, um, JohnHopkins during my master's
there, I had a really coolproject.
Um, I got to do like dataforensics on a real live murder
case.
that was reallyinspiring because I'm like, wow,
this is real life where mycoding skills are being used in
(27:07):
a jewelry trial.
And so that was a really coolexperience to partner with my
professor to kind of do that.
I mean, that was just mindblowing that, um, I got to help
with that and that, I mean, hewas using his programming skills
to help solve a murder case.
So,
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Uh, what's well, one, what's the best way for people
to connect with you and followyour journey.
And then if a teacher'sinterested and they they're
listening to this and they'rehearing, okay, this metaverse
coding thing sounds awesome.
I want to, I want to getinvolved.
I wanna know more, where canpeople go?
What steps should they take, um,to be able to get connected to,
to you and what you're doing?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah.
So you can check us out at brainstem, you.com, that's brain stem
, the letter you.com and on allsocial medias we're brain stem
you a brain stem university, um,teachers right now, we are doing
our free course, um, for, uh,teachers.
So sign up@brainstemu.com.
You can sign up for your classto get into a free metaverse
(28:04):
experience, just so you can kindof check it out and, uh, get
your class, um, into themetaverse and see how your
students like the metaverse, howyou like teaching in the
metaverse, um, and convert oneof your 2d lessons from Google
classroom into a metaverseclassroom.
With, for me I'm Ricky Mason, 50 2 on all social media
platforms.
So you can just type that inRicky Mason, 5 0 2.
(28:26):
And, um, but with me there,
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Nice Ricky, well, Ricky, I, I wanna thank you for
sharing your story and creatingbrain brain stem.
And then for, I know you, you'rea man of tremendous talents and
skills and accomplishments, andyou're focusing all that on not
only being back in yourcommunity, but also creating
something for younger versionsof you and opening up
opportunities that they mightnot otherwise have, as you said,
(28:48):
folks are like, what is stem?
And that is exactly where weneed those seeds planted.
So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Oh man, this is awesome.
I appreciate you, man, uh, forhosting this, uh, podcast and
providing this platform andsharing the message of, you
know, educators and people inthe space.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Thanks so much for joining me and Ricky today.
Make sure to support scienceconnections by subscribing,
wherever you listen to podcasts.
And you could hear more fromRicky in our Facebook group
science connections to thecommunity where you can check
out all the exclusive contentuntil next time.
I feel like, um, comfort is where dreams go to
die.
And, um, I'm still dreamingevery night.
So I'll wake up, chasing them.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to science connections.
I'm your host.
Eric Cross.
My guest today is Ricky Mason.
Ricky is an engineer whosecareer included lead roles at
the department of defense, NASA,and the CIA Ricky transitioned
to education as an adjunctfaculty at the university of
Kentucky.
And while there he founded brainstem, an ed tech company that
(00:29):
developed a 3d virtual reality.
Metaverse for stem educationtoday, brain stem serves public
school districts, privateschools, and non-profits.
And in this episode we discusswhat led Ricky to creating brain
stem, meta university, and howhe's using the metaverse to
transform stem learning forstudents.
And now please enjoy myconversation with Ricky Mason,
(00:52):
how did you, so like go maybegoing back well, doing your
origin story, and maybe you cantalk about it, but brother, you
don't sleep.
Talk about keep making movesyour hashtag.
I mean, I was, I was looking atyour LinkedIn profiles, looking
at your details.
You get after it, I was, I wasgetting tired, just reading it.
I was like John Hopkins,electrical engineering, real
(01:12):
estate, starting companies.
You must have that gene whereit's like four hours of sleep
and then you're like, ready togo.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, man, my mom told me if I, if I didn't stay
busy, then I'm in trouble.
So when I was about 14, she toldme that I said, well, mama, I
guess I'm gonna stay busy then.
And um, and yeah, man, that'sjust been my life.
It's um, I feel like if I don'tkeep making moves, then I'm I'm
in trouble.
So, uh, I feel like, um, comfortis where dreams go to die and,
(01:41):
um, I'm still dreaming everynight, so I'll wake up chasing
them.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I feel like a kindred spirit with you.
So the thing that were youalways interested in stem or
like, was there something thatlike a, a moment or a a year
were that you remember where youwere like, this is, this is my
jam.
This is what I'm gonna get into.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, man, I would, um, where, when it really
clicked for me was in the fifthgrade, um, I was at a school
assembly and, um, an IBMengineer came in and he brought
a robot and he programmed itwith punch card right on the
stage.
And, um, I got the opportunityto come up and, uh, you know,
put one of the punch cards inthe robot to program it.
(02:17):
And I asked him, I'm like, whatis your job?
He said, I'm a roboticsengineer.
And I'm like, mom, I went homeright after that assembly and
said, mom, that's what I wannado, become a robotics engineer.
And, uh, my mom would take me tothe libraries.
Well, I, I felt like I wasgetting outta Bible study on
Wednesdays by going to the, tothe, to the library.
So, um, I went there and Istarted researching robots.
(02:39):
And at the time the robots thatwere popular were all being sent
to space.
And it's the, it was thespiritless, it was, um, being
sent to Mars.
So those, uh, robots and I said,mom, well, I guess I gotta
become an astronaut if I'm gonnabe a robotics engineer.
And, um, that's kind of what setme out on that dream.
And my mom started trying tofind, um, outlets for me to get
(03:00):
involved in stem, but it wasreally tough to find those
outlets, you know, kind of inthat, especially fifth to eighth
grade, uh, range, um, here inKentucky.
So that was kind of where itstarted.
Um, for me man, when I knew thatyeah, engineering is what I,
what I wanna do.
What
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Does an electrical engineer do?
I, I imagine there's differenttypes of specialties, but like
what did you, was theresomething that you specialize in
that you focused on or was it,is it just kind of like a
generalist field?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, so, um, I would say, yeah, man, it's a huge
field.
So you could be doing anythingfrom, you know, power, like
power coming into your, yourhouse.
So those large power systems toall the way down to
nanotechnology mm-hmm
microchips, I, I like to tellpeople, um, I'm a real full
stack engineer, so my wheelhouseis kind of from the PCB, the
(03:43):
little green computer chips, allthe way to the cloud.
Okay.
Over my career, I've had somepretty cool jobs.
Um, kind of one of those thingswas I was a test engineer for
the army.
So I got to test weapons up atAberdeen, improving ground for
the army.
So I got to drive those weaponsand, um, test them before they
went to theater.
Um, there, um, after that, um, Iworked at, um, United launch
(04:04):
lines down at Cape Canaveralwhere I launched five rockets.
So I was a part of theelectrical ground systems team
there where, um, we wereresponsible for all of the
electrical systems on the rocketwhile it was on the pad.
So, um, monitoring thetemperature of the rocket, the
fuel, the, um, the entire systemfor safety, um, while it was, um
, on that pad.
(04:25):
And then finally I worked at theCIA as a computer engineer, um,
building, um, data centers andkind of as a computer, a data
center architect for some of our, um, remote systems and
virtualizing our systems.
So kind of had a broad spectrumof, of things there.
And then finally coming back tothe university of Kentucky as
research, engineer and faculty,um, I developed drone technology
(04:48):
for monitoring, uh, crops.
So flying drones over crops with, uh, LIDAR, just like
self-driving cars with, um, highdefinition cameras to pull in,
um, data about those crops tohelp farmers, um, determine
about pesticides, um,fertilizers and the overall
health of kind of their cropsfrom a remote location.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's so it's so neat to hear you talk about it and to
see how this is all built up to,to what you do now with brain
stem.
How would you explain what brainstem is?
I know that's your, that's kindof your, your baby right now and
what you've been working on for,for a few years.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, man, we started brain stem in 2019 officially,
but, um, I would say brainstemhas been, uh, almost 10 years in
coming.
Um, while I was in undergrad, Iplayed football at the
university of Kentucky.
So, but I got hurt going into mysophomore year and that kind of
shattered my, you know, proddreams of football mm-hmm
(05:44):
engineering.
One of my professors asked me tocome to a robotics competition
and I saw these third gradersand sixth graders programming
robots.
And I'm like, oh my God, they'reprogramming robots.
And I have no idea how to codeor what to, you know, do with
these things.
And where was this at?
When I was a kid?
And, um, so I immediately boughtone of those robots and taught
(06:05):
myself how to program it
robotics team in Lexington, um,there at a church.
And, um, we got a sponsorshipfrom Lexmark to start that team.
And that was kind of my firstleap into, you know, stem and
teaching stem and creatingprograms for students in stem.
I did that in undergrad and likeI said, fast forward 10 years
later, I'm teaching at theuniversity of Kentucky and we're
(06:26):
struggling to, you know, recruitstem students.
Why aren't students going intostem?
I hear too many adults tell me,oh man, I wish I would've done
engineering.
Or I started out in engineering,but I left engineering or I wish
I would, could go back to schoolfor engineering or learn, learn
to code.
And I'm like, I asked them like,why didn't you do this?
What, what happened?
And often it's like, it was themath.
(06:47):
It was, oh, I didn't get into ituntil I was in college.
And I'm like, well, that's thekey.
I knew I wanted to do this inthe fifth grade.
And I started with a plan in thefifth grade to achieve these
goals and dreams.
So, and I started doing thatresearch and realizing that the
same problem existed that I had,there was no outlet for kids to
get involved in stem.
(07:08):
And so many kids have anaffinity for stem at an early
age.
So we started brain stem toprovide access to stem education
and exposure mm-hmm
professionals, mm-hmm
stem fields as a whole, becausetoo often kids, um, may know
about the term engineer or theterm scientists, but they don't
(07:32):
really know what those people door have a strong connection with
the field or have any hands onprojects that they kind of done
around those things or metanyone like me.
I didn't meet an engineer untilI was in college.
So that has really beenimpactful.
Um, for some of the studentsthat we've been able to, to
touch.
I had a family reach out to me.
They moved to Lexington fromCalifornia and they were like,
(07:54):
man, I really want my ninthgrade son to get involved in
engineering.
So we started a weekend programwith, um, that one student and,
um, it went amazing.
Like we competed in, uh, sciencefairs, we applied for different
college programs and things likethat.
So it became an entire likementorship, uh, program that it
turned into.
(08:15):
And I'm proud to say that a yearago.
Um, he actually graduated, uh,with his bachelor's in
electrical engineering from Yorkside of town, U C S B.
It was just awesome to actuallysee this come full circle.
And that's kind of one of thefirst, uh, things that we did
before we actually formalized asbrain stem university.
And
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What will be like your elevator pitch for a
teacher?
If you were gonna say, this iswhat brain stem does.
I, I have the luxury of goingthrough it on the site, but
since we're on a podcast, howwould you kind of pitch it to
people letting them know?
Like what, what does it do?
Who does it serve?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah.
So brain stem provides stemcurriculum and stem magnets for
schools and nonprofits lookingfor to increase access to stem
for K through 12 students.
Um, we also have launched ourbrain stem, meta university, a
metaverse product for teachersto take their 2d Google
classroom and convert it into a3d metaverse classroom where
(09:10):
students can collaborate duringa 3d class.
So all of your students show upas their avatars that they can
select from our inventory of 150avatars and enjoy class in a 3d
gameified Minecraft like
Speaker 2 (09:26):
World.
So I made my avatar by the way.
Oh, it's, it's kind of tight.
It's I have to say it's kind oftight.
Hey, I'm gonna share.
So those of you in the podcastsI'll share it so you can see it.
You're not gonna be able to seeit right now, but since I have
the man himself, uh, I gottashare it with him just so I can
give him get a reaction.
So can you see that?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's so good.
It it's, I feel like, I feellike I wanna look like him
though.
I want, I want him in real life.
Like I want be able to switch tolooking like my avatar
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That was the first thing that I jumped on.
When I went on your site wasmaking the avatar and I had so
much fun doing it.
It actually, I actually tooklonger than I probably wanna
admit cuz I was like customizedand everything.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, man.
It's so fun.
And that's exactly what, youknow, when you can show up as
the person you want, it changesyour whole, your whole being,
like I've seen kids that arequiet in class.
Mm-hmm
They're talkative.
They're asking questions.
They're moving around the room,interacting with other kids.
I feel like it's almost like asuperpower just to put your
(10:24):
avatar on.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So what is something that a teacher could have their
students go and learn or do ifthey, if they signed up,
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Let's kick it off.
So how we started with themetaverses teaching, uh, coding.
So our first class was Minecraftand Python coding in the
metaverse.
So students showed up in themetaverse with our virtual
instructor, that instructor leda lecture in the metaverse and
then those students couldcollaborate on their Python, uh,
games.
So they created and built thegame in Python.
(10:54):
They, we shared those games inthe metaverse and uh, we have
our leaderboards that are in themetaverse, as they're completing
these challenges, includingthese games, that's sharing them
back in the metaverse with otherstudents and getting that
feedback on their game.
So we've seen huge excitementfrom students when I can come
back in and see my friends worklike too often, students don't
(11:14):
get to see their work and that'smotivation to do better when I
like Jim's gonna see my work.
It's amazing.
Um, to see, um, that motivationwhen students, um, are sharing
their work with other kids andnot just their parent are just
them and the teacher are seeingtheir, their grades.
I, I, it's been really cool tosee you
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Have that genuine audience too, like that, that
real time feedback.
And then like an authenticaudience.
I, for students that makeseverything seem, it takes it up
a notch.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, man.
And then as we have been builton this platform, so like you
said with that avatar, so thinkif you created a really cool
looking avatar and otherstudents wanted to be that
avatar, we have a way of sharingthat avatar back into the world
and in the inventory so thatother students could then be
your avatar.
Or if you create a world, wecould then share that world back
(12:02):
into the inventory.
So the teacher could have classin a world that you created,
Speaker 2 (12:07):
They're creating content, not just consuming it,
they're actually creatingcontent that could be shared
across like grade levels orstudents.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Well we're gonna say right now it's just within your
classroom.
Oh, okay.
Um, eventually yes, we wantstudents to be able to share
that across, you know, schooldistricts.
Um, at least we think that datawill be probably limited to
those kind of rooms as far asschools go, but you'll be able
to share this across sixthgrade.
We'll be able to see whateveryone in the sixth grade is
doing in their stem class ortheir game development class or
(12:35):
their history class, per se,even if they're giving back a
presentation or, um, what wehave here in JCPS is backpack
skills of success, um, wherestudents are presenting on
things that they're learningthat relate back to core
competencies that the districtis focused on.
And I think that sharing thosein the metaverse and doing those
in the 3d world will, um, be anawesome experience for
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Students.
Are you seeing anything else asfar as those skills that we see
that are needed in, in coding?
Is there something that the VRads that was distinct from maybe
just a kid with a Chromebook in,in his class that it's just him
in isolation doing the coding?
Are, was there any like ahas orsurprises when they're in the VR
world doing this?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Um, I think the biggest thing is we could
actually show them real examplesof code working in other ways.
So, um, example, if we'reworking through loops, we can
show them something looping.
We can relate these functions toreal world things happening in
the VR world so that they cansee and better relate the actual
concept with visuals.
(13:34):
If that makes sense.
So you're in loop Allen the time, the whole time you're learning
about loops, you're immersed inthat kind of world.
What we've seen is studentsreally start to, you know, they
pick up and they click, itclicks a lot faster, um, because
some of these concepts are soabstract mm-hmm
for students to understand whenwe can relate them to things in
that world that they see thatare in front of them, that they
(13:55):
can grasp almost, um, before wego to okay.
Type in while parentheses
that and, and pick up on thoseclues a lot better after they've
seen those things in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So they can actually visualize it in the metaverse.
Whereas outside of it, it's morejust, just text based coding and
they're, and they're not,they're not isolated.
Like the first thing I'mthinking about is how like, with
my own students, when they'relearning, scratch or Python,
it's not easy to share back andforth because they all are on
individual accounts and they'dhave to go on a different
computer or we'd have to findsome way to publish it.
(14:31):
And then all the kids would haveto access it.
But it sounds like in theadversity classrooms, it's easy
for students in that same classto see each other's work.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah.
So, um, in some of our smallerclassrooms, so most of our
classrooms are, are limited to24 students mm-hmm
and in some of our breakoutclassrooms, we limit them to
about eight students.
Everybody can share their screenso students can share their
screen in the metaverse.
They can share their video inthe metaverse.
They can share documents in themetaverse.
They can share their, like Isaid, their code are anything
(15:00):
that they want to share withother students.
Um, they can kind of do that.
So it's been a really coolproduct, I think for students to
almost find like independence,to work with their, within a
group, in an online setting, asthey've been working through
these problems online and remote, um, it's been really cool to
see how they use the metaverseand break out into their, even
(15:20):
in, in a class, they can go offinto a section because it's all
spacial.
If you walk away, I can't hearkind of your conversation.
So they can go into a littlesection within a metaverse class
and have their own breakout.
Wow.
And a teacher can walk over tothem.
Okay.
You guys are working over here.
Let me walk to my next group,just like in class.
So it's been really cool to seethose students use the metaverse
(15:41):
like
Speaker 2 (15:41):
This.
Just listening to you talk aboutthis.
One of the exciting things aboutlike emerging technologies or
taking what the private sectordoes and, and someone with a
mind like yourself and go, howdo I use this for education?
Like, that's, that's somethingthat like excites me and you're,
you've run with it.
But I just thought about, you'redoing an hour of code.
You've created this metaverseand you can bring in somebody a
(16:03):
professional into the metaverse,but they're in, you know, bay
area, but they could be asoftware engineer for Tesla or,
or Google or anybody.
Could they move around themetaverse and, and take a look
at different students, work andinteract in that way.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, man, we get in there, we take metaverse
selfies.
I drop Lambos in the metaversewe take picture with Lambos.
It's like a complete, we havescavenger hunts in the
metaverse.
Um, and it's a, it's a reallyawesome experience.
And, and that's one of the bigthings I think that is so
powerful is like you said, wecould have that engineer, that
celebrity, we could have TravisScott, you know, in the world
(16:39):
meeting thousands of kidsmotivating them because they met
their, their stem goals.
They met their, you know, theirtesting school goals or, or
whatever.
These are things that kidsreally care about.
Mm-hmm
Elon Musk avatar, because Icompleted the Elon Musk rocket
challenge, like that's huge forme to show up in class as that
(17:02):
avatar, like it's just likeFortnite and it's bringing all
of those mechanics into theclassroom.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And I, when I hear you talk about the metaverse and
I hear you talk about thepotential of where you want to
go with it.
I think about my own students.
And I think about, they wouldreally have a genuine interest
and desire to want to do thisand probably probably be doing
it when they don't have to likeat home at night wanting to go
back into it and interact.
And you're also building thisvirtual community.
I mean, are you seeing that like, cause I'm hearing that
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, man building that community is huge.
And I often tell people all thetime, I want the stem community
to be just like the basketballcommunity, the football
community.
I want students to have thatcamaraderie built around them
for learning stem andparticipating in stem activities
and competitions.
Because when you see studentsout there at a robotics, they
(17:49):
have the same zeal, the samemm-hmm
everything that you find at afootball competition.
So we just have to get behindthem and back those events with
the same enthusiasm that we backsports.
And that's the environment thatI want to create for stem
students and for that stemcommunity, because I longed for
that community when I was inschool.
(18:10):
And, um, like I said, I had itin football, but I wanted both.
I wanted the best of bothworlds.
I wanted my stem commute, myrobots, my robotics guys, and my
football guys to show uptogether here at the, at the
competition and, um, have a good
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Time.
You're absolutely right.
Like robotics stem, these thingscommunity helps fuel like
people's interest and workingtogether.
And it brings people from theoutside who are seeking that
community.
Like, Hey, my friends are doingthis.
I wanna come kind of check itout.
That's how we recruit a widerswath of our population into it.
So it's not this kind of verynarrow channel of folks who are
going into stem,
Speaker 1 (18:45):
If you can't find that community.
I mean, uh, for me, I felt likeI was the only one playing
football who was interested inrobotics.
So I never told anybody becauseI, I didn't feel like that
related to anybody within myvicinity.
So, um, I kept that to myselfand that's, that's the biggest
thing.
I think if we get these kidsjust talking more about their
(19:06):
interests, because a lot of themare interested in robotics and
space and these stem, uh,topics, but they don't have
anyone that's really nudgingthem or asking them or peeking
their interest kind of in thosespaces and saying, Hey man, it's
okay to, you know, learn aboutrobots.
It's okay to geek out on space.
(19:30):
kind of why I felt like this wasthe time in my career for me to
kind of do this, be a face forstem education and inspire kids
to chase their goals and dreamsover my career.
I've had some really cool, uh,jobs, but I felt like I could
keep doing cool jobs, but I I'm.
I'm like right at the right ageto still connect with those
students and inspire them to, tochase their, their dreams.
(19:53):
Um, and so that's why I feellike right now, man, it's just a
opportune time to, to, to getthese students involved in stem.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We don't get that.
Oftentimes when we're solelydoing like the cool job or
simply in the private sector, wedon't get those experiences as
much as we do when we're able toactually serve our community or
students or take our passion,our skillset and use it to, you
know, serve another person.
I, I hear that like, as, as youdescribe what you're doing now
is like, there's somethingbeyond just, you know, the, the
(20:22):
using your skills and doing coolstuff, but there's something I
hear.
That's helping people andactually doing something you
believe in that this isresonates deeply in you.
And I can hear it as you talkabout
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It.
It's been, um, just amazing to,to actually like chart out that
journey.
Like I said, and like tell kidslike, no man, I'm, I'm from
right up the block from you, cuzI mean, I'm building this back
at home, um, in my hometown.
And that's the reason why I kindof came back to kind of do that
in my hometown because I reallywant to, you know, relate to
those students and inspire, youknow, students here.
(20:53):
Um, nobody thinks abouttechnology coming out of
Kentucky and that's been a, agift and a curse, I guess, with,
uh, launching, you know, brainstem in Kentucky.
When I first started com I said,where is stem education company?
People are asking me what isstem.
So that, um, was, um, where westarted out with this in 2019,
all the way to, you know, Hey,in 2020, we're gonna launch a,
(21:16):
metaverse a metaverse what isthat?
It's been amazing to try tochange the minds of not only
Kentucky ends about stem and theimportance of stem, but the
world that a metaverse company,um, is coming outta Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
exists beyond you and youprobably know this, but as a
black science educator, youknow, out here in San Diego,
there's we don't see people wholook like all of us in this, in
this work often.
And, uh, I, I saw that you hadcreated something, a network
network, group network, andchill.
And that was one of the thingswe had touched on community, but
I, I thought that that was sohuge because cuz we need each
(21:55):
other.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I feel like that was the biggest thing for, for us in
engineering.
Like I showed up to my firstinternship and I'm like, I mean,
my, my boss was cool.
Everything else was cool, but Ijust didn't feel like, Hey, this
is a community for me.
And I almost changed my major,um, because of that.
But I'm glad that I didn't,it's, it's huge to have more of
us represented in, in thesespaces
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And you know, in engineering, especially we look
at the disproportionate, youknow, men versus women.
Like it's not, you know, it'snot just culture, but it's, you
know, gender, all of thesedifferent things.
And if we're gonna change it, Ithink a program like yours that
gets exposure to all kids andmen giving them choice.
What advice would you give tostudents?
Um, or what advice I should say,do you give to students now?
(22:36):
Who, when you see like youryounger self in the different
kind of K12 grades who arethinking about their futures or
they're thinking about stem,what do you say to them?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So, um, my biggest advice man is start now.
Um, whatever that big thing isthat big dream is that you have,
what, what is that?
Now you you're thinking aboutplanes.
You're thinking about robots.
You're thinking about RC cars,whatever that is.
Let's start now.
Let's get you.
Let's get your, get your handson an RC car.
Let's break it.
Let's take it apart.
(23:06):
Let's let's start coding.
Let's start thinking about thoseproblems now.
But the biggest thing is, is, isgetting kids used to solving
tough problems.
Typically, most students thathave an affinity for, you know,
stem and you, you just know thatthat kid's gonna go into stem
they're problem solvers.
They're typically looking andseeking those tough problems and
(23:26):
seeking opportunities to, tolearn.
That's where I feel like it'sparents' jobs to provide that
environment to foster, that,that zeal a five year old kid,
we started our stem program withthem at the beginning of this
month.
First day I come, came in afterI told him I was a rocket
scientist.
And now he's like, well, I wannabe a pilot.
I said, if you pay attention tothis class, we're gonna get you
(23:47):
started on your way to being apilot.
And he knows all the parts of arock and he knows a rock and he
is an oxidizer and he knows thefuselage, the wings, the, the
wing flaps.
He knows all the different partsof the plane and how the forces,
the drag, the lift, the weight.
He knows how those are working.
Cuz we talked about those inclass and he has so much more
confidence and, and it came allto fruition when a kid said,
(24:09):
wow, I thought it was gonna bereally hard to be a rocket, a
robotics engineer.
And I'm like, no, that's notgonna be that hard.
That is exactly what we set outto do.
When we, um, started brain stemwas to break down those barriers
in those walls and build thatconfidence and say, look man,
you can do this.
It's easy
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Society doesn't help much either because one of the,
one of our terms, right, ifsomething's really hard is we
say, or if something's not hard,we say it's not rocket science
that implies that rocket scienceis really hard and inaccessible
when K if kids would hear thatit kind of instills in their
brain.
Okay.
It's really hard.
It's probably too hard for me tothat point to parents.
It sounds like a lot of justexposure, like giving students
(24:46):
the opportunity to be able to beexposed to these things and let,
letting them create wonder from
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It.
Yeah, man, I often I tellparents we're gonna set kids up
to go pro no matter what,
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And those skill sets transfer, whether they're they
decide to go into coding or theydecide to manage a bank, you're,
you're still gonna be dealingwith people.
You're still gonna be problemsolving.
You're still gonna have to comeup with creative solutions to
things.
It sounds like through, througha program like this, they learn
those skills early.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yes.
And I think that one thing thatparents don't think about, we,
we talk about all the stem andwe, we want smart kids, but we
need those soft skills alsowithin stem.
So those competitions gettingthem involved in those
communities with stem studentsis really huge in presenting
their ideas because oftentimes,you know, our stem guys, we're
in a lab working and that's,that's where we love.
(25:33):
And that's where we wanna bebecause we haven't, you know,
been prepared to talk andpresent our ideas.
So I think that's a huge part ofwhat we have to teach our stem
students.
And we do that by providing thatcommunity and those
opportunities for them to, youknow, do
Speaker 2 (25:47):
That thinking about where you, where you are now
looking back on your K-12education.
Were there any teachers thatstood out to you or that
inspired you as I even just saythat you think of a particular
teacher or one or two
Speaker 1 (26:00):
In mind?
When I, I think about my, myteachers, my teachers, um,
really taught me to solve thosetough problems.
And tho those subjects that youdon't kinda like
was always a great student, butuh, my teachers helped me to
focus on those subjects that I,I didn't so much, you know,
enjoy.
So I enjoyed math and science,but English and uh, social
(26:21):
studies, like why do I have tobe here?
I had a particular two teachersduring my high school career
that really supported, you know,me in, in, in that regards and
helping me to be the beststudent all around, um, from
like I said, stem to English andsocial studies.
Um, and uh, making me realizethat I, I have to be a well
rounded student if I'm gonna betruly successful as, as far as
(26:45):
engineering, man, I, I, I wouldsay one guy, my, my teacher,
Nick, BAAR up at, um, JohnHopkins during my master's
there, I had a really coolproject.
Um, I got to do like dataforensics on a real live murder
case.
this is real life where mycoding skills are being used in
(27:07):
a jewelry trial
And so that was a really coolexperience to partner with my
professor to kind of do that.
I mean, that was just mindblowing that, um, I got to help
with that and that, I mean, hewas using his programming skills
to help solve a murder case.
So,
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Uh, what's well, one, what's the best way for people
to connect with you and followyour journey.
And then if a teacher'sinterested and they they're
listening to this and they'rehearing, okay, this metaverse
coding thing sounds awesome.
I want to, I want to getinvolved.
I wanna know more, where canpeople go?
What steps should they take, um,to be able to get connected to,
to you and what you're doing?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah.
So you can check us out at brainstem, you.com, that's brain stem
, the letter you.com and on allsocial medias we're brain stem
you a brain stem university, um,teachers right now, we are doing
our free course, um, for, uh,teachers.
So sign up@brainstemu.com.
You can sign up for your classto get into a free metaverse
(28:04):
experience, just so you can kindof check it out and, uh, get
your class, um, into themetaverse and see how your
students like the metaverse, howyou like teaching in the
metaverse, um, and convert oneof your 2d lessons from Google
classroom into a metaverseclassroom.
With, for me I'm Ricky Mason, 50 2 on all social media
platforms.
So you can just type that inRicky Mason, 5 0 2.
(28:26):
And, um, but with me there,
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Nice Ricky, well, Ricky, I, I wanna thank you for
sharing your story and creatingbrain brain stem.
And then for, I know you, you'rea man of tremendous talents and
skills and accomplishments, andyou're focusing all that on not
only being back in yourcommunity, but also creating
something for younger versionsof you and opening up
opportunities that they mightnot otherwise have, as you said,
(28:48):
folks are like, what is stem?
And that is exactly where weneed those seeds planted.
So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Oh man, this is awesome.
I appreciate you, man, uh, forhosting this, uh, podcast and
providing this platform andsharing the message of, you
know, educators and people inthe space.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Thanks so much for joining me and Ricky today.
Make sure to support scienceconnections by subscribing,
wherever you listen to podcasts.
And you could hear more fromRicky in our Facebook group
science connections to thecommunity where you can check
out all the exclusive contentuntil next time.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.