A self-directed Honours project, The Inventory is an iPad app designed to encourage girls in a playful engagement with science.

Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) play a major part in our everyday lives, yet interest in these subjects among high school students continues to decline. Industry is experiencing a skills shortage in these areas and women are especially underrepresented. 

The Inventory is an app and a product delivery system that makes learning STEM fun and accessible, immersing kids into the world of STEM through hands-on learning and play. Inspired by the maker movement and Arvind Gupta’s philosophy of ‘turning trash into learning toys’, The Inventory features experiments that can be done cheaply at home using everyday objects—from lemons to balloons—and promotes upcycling materials that would otherwise be thrown out.

The Inventory engages and fuels kids’ natural curiosity. In harnessing active learning strategies, and avoiding gender stereotypes, it promotes STEM thinking to a diversity of children, and equips them with the skills to build a better future for all of us.