The Universe Within: Mat Bevel Company creates superheroes in STEAM

By Jude McGee

"There's a genius within you," reads the banner of Mat Bevel Company's (MBC) "The Universe Within" homepage. The motto is rooted in the belief that creative genius must be nurtured to survive. The program is an applied learning initiative that cultivates imagination through STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education for youth in grades 4-8. 

The Universe Within offers four hybrid courses with online modules and applied learning, delivered to classrooms in Eastern Santa Cruz County, as well as programs at camps and clubs, both in and out of school. MBC brings the materials to classrooms in that area, and the online lessons are free and available to schools everywhere. In the “Community Heroes” course, students create their own superhero tasked with solving a social or environmental problem of their choice. Students build costumes and tools for their character to solve the problem. In 20 lessons, students learn to unlock their creative genius while exploring shapes, physics, building, and creating a hero with distinct superpowers who can save the world from their designated problem. 

In “Creating New Worlds,” students create their own world, place it in the solar system, and determine its orbit and the measure of time, learning about the properties of space, time, and motion along the way. Students make short stories about the world and visually express them through presentations and performances. 

Along with the modules, there are additional creative tracks. On the planets they create, students can explore rhythm and build musical instruments in a unit called “Making Music.” Students can also explore city planning in their solar systems by mapping a grid of city elements that flow through their interplanetary communities in a track called “Power Up Communities.” 

At the heart of The Universe Within and MBC’s other programs is a passion for bringing together the arts and sciences. According to Paula Schaper, multimedia program director for MBC, the organization’s youth programming supports kinetic learning, an educational approach that emphasizes activities and touch through high levels of divergent thinking and inventiveness. The organization was founded in 1990 by Schaper’s brother, Ned Schaper, a kinetic sculptor. Since then, the Schapers’ shared values, captured through the World of Beveldom, have led to the creation of an expansive nonprofit organization that shares the arts and sciences with the world.

“Ned has created kinetic art and science theater all wrapped into an immersive world called Beveldom involving several different media,” said Schaper. “And in 2018, we decided to make a physics curriculum.” Since then, The Universe Within program has served thousands of students in Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.  

The program also addresses a key geographical need in Santa Cruz County. According to Data USA, the county experiences a poverty rate of 20.2%, and in towns such as Rio Rico, families with children under five are hit the hardest, experiencing poverty at 51.7%, according to a study by Making Action Possible. 

“We see a lot of poverty here. Kids in metro areas may have access to technology that students in rural areas don’t. Our portable maker space can bridge that gap.” Schaper said. The Universe Within has been offered free of charge to everyone.

Students of the program find it inspiring and educational. Alyssa, a fifth-grader, said, "It's a super-fun program where you get to show off your creative mind. Using trial and error, we can always fix and improve the 3D projects we build. We are encouraged to expand and grow our creative ideas. And I get to meet new people from our community who are in other schools and grades. It was surprising to learn that I was born a creative genius. I just have to keep using my imagination to keep my inner genius alive!"

MBC’s ideology about human genius is based on a study by NASA scientist Dr. George Land. Land found that “genius levels plummeted with age,” noting how 98% of 5-year-olds he studied were deemed creative geniuses, but his cohort of young adults measured only 2%. MBC’s solution to this is to encourage students to “observe, invent, and apply what children learn to create their own world and solve problems that they care about.”

"We practice using divergent thinking to solve more complex problems,” said Schaper. “This is the missing ingredient that causes the creative intelligence deficit in the United States.”

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To learn more about the Mat Bevel Company, visit https://www.matbevelcompany.org/

To learn more about The Universe Within, visit https://the-universe-within.org/