A boy at a library table programming a small blue robot through a course of coloured arches, the Secret Coders books beside him.
MPI Scholar Academy · In person · Brooklyn

Come build with us.
STEM Inspire.

Robots that roll. Chess that bites. Code that runs. A book with your kid's name on the cover. Free, in person, in Brooklyn — come with your child.

Send a note → The rooms at home
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Room 04This is a robot the kids build.

Its real model, from the racing room.

Every partIt comes apart.

Head, chest, arms, hands, legs — the pieces they wire together on the jig.

ThenThey race it.

Three robots, one track, and the drink-the-cell rule.

Room 02This is the drone they fly.

Its real model, from the flight deck.

ExplodedDucted rotors. Gimbal camera. Power cell. Water tank.

Every piece, pulled apart so you can see how it flies.

Back togetherAnd it flies on the code they type.
from mpi.drone import Drone

drone = Drone()
drone.power_on()
drone.takeoff()
drone.forward(3)
drone.turn(90)
drone.forward(2)
drone.land()   # it lands.
Real PythonEvery line you type, the drone does.
The rooms at home

What they do between sessions.

Room 01, the times table
Room 01Learn your times tables & math

One big table at a time, six kinds, a Hater who flips your answers.

Open the room →
Room 02, the flight deck
Room 02Fly a drone with Python code

Write it on the left, watch it fly on the right.

Open the room →
Room 03, 3-D space
Room 03Find places in 3-D space

Type an x, y, z address and a marker lands there.

Open the room →
Room 04, build a robot
Room 04Build a robot and race it

Pick the parts, wire them on the jig, race two rivals.

Open the room →
Math problems on the cube
Room 01 · the cubeProblems on paper, on a cube you turn

Borrow, carry, cross out — on the sides of a cube.

Open the room →
Room 08, chess
Room 08Play chess

Two players on one phone, or play Trunko.

Open the room →
The park
The parkNine rooms, one robot, and a memory you build

The whole school, at home, on a phone.

The front page →
Our name on the door of the room at the library, the boy at the table inside
The room. Our name on the door. This is real.
What happens at STEM Inspire

Real robots. A real board. A real book with your name on it.

The rooms of MPI Scholar Academy are what the children do at home between sessions.

01
RoboticsBuild and program real robots through NYC FIRST. Sensors, motion, obstacle courses like the one in the picture.
02
ChessStrategy and patience. Every legal move shown; then you find the better one.
03
CodingGames, robots, automation — the same fundamentals real engineers use, started by hand.
04
BooksEach child writes, illustrates and publishes a book of their own. It goes home in their hands.
Secret Coders books stacked on the table beside the small blue robot.
The Secret Coders on the table, the robot waiting for its next line of code.
From STEM Inspire

This is what it looks like.

Programming the robot at the library table
Programming the robot through the course
The robot course on the table
The course, built by hand
Our name on the door
Our name on the door
Secret Coders books and the robot
The Secret Coders, and the robot waiting
Where this is going

A home for STEM culture in Brooklyn.

Stage 1 · Now
Sessions in Brooklyn

A table, a room, a small group, a few hours of building. This is where it starts.

Stage 2 · Next
The STEM Inspire storefront

A small lounge in Brooklyn, open after school, evenings and weekends — a calm place to study, build and take part in STEM sports and e-sports tied to real learning.

Stage 3 · The vision
The STEM Inspire Center

Robotics and maker labs, computer learning spaces, tutoring, mentoring and entrepreneurship support — the first STEM Lounge network across New York and New Jersey.

Days and places change

Send us a note.

Tell us you'd like to come, and with whom, and we'll write back with the next day and place. Parents and grandparents are welcome to stay and learn — there's an adult program too.

I'd like to come with my child

Use the form, or call.

Sign up → 718 791 8461
The room at the library: our name on the door, the boy at the table inside
Who teaches

Earl S. Bell

Architect, author and patented inventor, raised in Wyckoff Gardens. He first ran a STEM program in Boerum Hill in the 1990s while studying architecture at Pratt, then spent twenty years with firms like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, AECOM and Thornton Tomasetti — JFK and LaGuardia, Penn Station, Google's data centers, the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Now he brings it home. MPI is short for Marechkawick Polytechnic Institute — Marechkawick being what this part of Brooklyn was called before it was Brooklyn.

“I want young people here to see themselves as inventors, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs — because they are.”

STEM Inspire at marechkawick.org →