With your help we can continue Lyka’s Adventure around the world. We’re looking to raise 50k. The funds are needed to continue the book series, develop the app for each of the books (iOS & Android) and to help our Lyka’s Adventure Labs reach more children and schools around the world.
Here’s how you can help…
1. Make a contribution of any size. We have a range of awesome perks. Pre-order your own Lyka plush and book or help bring a Lyka’s Adventure to a school or after school program.
2. Spread the word to friends, family and colleagues. Use our indiegogo campaign link below to share our campaign page and video via email or social media:
Every bit of support helps!
This groundbreaking series of chapter books for readers – boys and girls – aged 6 to 10 is a creative and entertaining storyworld that encourages children to engage with the natural world.
Lyka’s Adventure blasts off in May 2014 with the first in a series of chapter books that provide a unique interactive reading experience when enjoyed with the Lyka plush toy and accompanying free mobile app.
The Lyka’s Adventure books, corresponding app, and plush will be released by territory, with Australia being the first country to meet Lyka. North America will be our next stop later this fall.
Lyka’s story continues in the travelling Lyka’s Adventure Labs, which bring hands-on, discovery-based science and tech workshops to directly young learners. Each standards-based workshop combines storytelling, science experiments, coding, and the principles of design science to encourage exploration and enable students to collaborate with each other and classrooms around the world to help Lyka save Planet Ahmee.
I’m dyslexic. It’s something that has challenged me throughout my life. In elementary school I was almost held back twice. It was only thanks to the efforts of my mother working with me during summer vacations that I was able to keep up. So when my son, who is now 6, started to exhibit what his school at the time determined were “focus” issues they wanted to test him, to label him and then suggested that we should consider medication. Feeling as if the cycle would repeat itself, my wife and I decided to pull him out of that school and place him in a Montessori program. The results have been amazing as he’s taken to the discovery-based approach, which allows him to learn at his own pace. The methods are very much in line with 21st century skills.
Inspired, I decided to create an educational initiative that brings an experiential learning approach to parents and students, no matter if they can afford a Montessori program or not. Three years ago my team and myself at Connected Sparks began an educational adventure of our own. We formed a startup whose sole focus is to create toys and stories with passion and purpose. Our first effort is entitled Lyka’s Adventure and it centers on a small robot scientist from another planet with a big heart. She travels to Earth in an effort to save her home, which has been decimated by climate change. Along the way she is aided by students ages 5 to 10 who use STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) based on activities that are intended to build strong 21st Century skills. These skills focus on empathy, listening, how to shape questions, rapid prototyping and physical computing. At Connected Sparks we aim to provide parents, teachers and schools with storyworlds that challenge children in a way that inspires and ignites their imaginations and creativity. Our approach is rooted in amazing storytelling, strong characters, and innovative uses of emerging and established technology along with a healthy dose of play and design thinking.
- LANCE WEILER (co-founder Connected Sparks)
Lyka’s Adventure Labs are STEAM-driven, standards-based experiential education workshops that ignite imaginations through storytelling and experimentation.
Participants meet Lyka, a young scientist robot, and help her collect specimens and data from earth to save her home Planet Ahmee from looming environmental disaster. Students and educators use sensor technology to gather and report data, document their adventures, and communicate
with Lyka.
Lyka will travel with a team of experienced educators and storytellers in a customized, biodiesel, roving adventure truck. This mobile lab brings a field trip experience directly into schools by transporting natural specimens, technology, and scientific tools that students can get their hands on and experiment with.
Each workshop combines storytelling, coding or physical computing, and the principles of design science to encourage exploration of earth science and enable students to collaborate with each other and classrooms around the country to help save Planet Ahmee.
April 26th
Tribeca Film Festival – TFI Interactive Day
May 2nd to May 13th
Australian Tour
June 14th
Learn Do Share – NYC
Interested in suggesting a school or after school program that you feel would be a good candidate for a Lyka’s Adventure Lab? Click here for more info.
At Connected Sparks we create toys and stories with passion and purpose. Lyka’s Adventure is our first product.
Connected Sparks is a next generation media and connected toy company that creates products (toys, stories, games, books, apps) with passion and purpose. Our mission is to help children and parents discover and design the world around them. The products we create teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math), digital literacy, sustainability and collaborative problem solving. Our approach is rooted in amazing storytelling, strong characters, and innovative uses of emerging and established technology along with a healthy dose of play and design thinking. We strive to ignite the imagination of many.
Inspire children’s curiosity to explore the world around them.
Communicate that everyone is a scientist in a way that resonates with children.
Teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math)
Reach classrooms around the globe with open, reusable tools for experiential, discovery-based learning.
Get updates on Lyka’s Adventure and other Connected Sparks products.
Lance Weiler is a co-founder of Connected Sparks and is responsible for overall company vision and strategy. Lance teaches at Columbia University, sits on a steering committee for the World Economic Forum on the future of entertainment and has worked with the UN and others on initiatives that mix storytelling, tech and social good.
Janine Saunders is a co-founder of Connected Sparks and leads product and operations. Becoming a mother has intensified her commitment to make Lyka’s Adventure the most amazing and memorable toy in a child’s life.
Atley Loughridge is a co-founder of Connected Sparks and Reboot Stories. She authors the Lyka’s Adventure books and designs the app experience.
Liz Nord is a documentary filmmaker, multi-platform producer, and media educator with a professional history designing award-winning educational software. In addition to directing the Lyka’s Adventure Labs, she is currently producing the multi-platform doc Jerusalem Unfiltered.
Teymour N. Sursock works on Lyka’s Adventure as a producer. He is also a culture hacker & collaborative storyteller+designer w/ a master’s degree in Media Studies and Media Management from The New School, NYC.
