TOYZSTEAM helps Students use their  TOYZSTORY to Create and become TOYZMAKERS and sell on the TOYZSTORE

A better way to Learn STEAM through superhero rap and storytelling.
We include everyone in the evolving technological future through STEAM storytelling. 

Gaming + STEM + Art + Maker + Entrepreneurship To Get Students prepared for the Future of Work

WATCH TOYZSTEAM CURRICULUM VIDEO

A mechanical engineer and economist is troubled by the plight of people and decides to begin a heroic journey.

Co-Founder Damola Idowu

At 12 Damola Idowu was a poet who loved writing love letters and dreamt of being a mechanical engineer after watching a show Knight Rider about an Autonomous vehicle with an AI named KITT. At 15 his dream became true taking college classes at Syracuse during summer college. At 16 he will enroll at Syracuse full-time to study mechanical engineering and economics. At 18 he will win an engineering competition at Howard University.

Co-Founder Wole Idowu

His son Wole Idowu will be inspired and will come up with his own inventions that were sustainable and accessible for billions of people in the world. He will present this idea at 15 on top business television network CNBC in a documentary with fabled Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel. 20 Under 20 transforming tomorrow was the title and he will choose to enroll at Carnegie Mellon University at 15 to pursue electrical and computer engineering and learn to build his world changing technology.

Watch them on CBS News

Culture Responsiveness

Culture Responsiveness

Superhero Rap Idealism as the Background

Interdisciplinary Topics

Interdisciplinary Topics

AI, AR/VR, game design, Audio Editing, 3D Animation, Python Programming, Chatbots Developing, 3D printing, Marketing, Entrepreneurship

Hands-on Projects

Hands-on Projects

Working Time and Deliverable Artifacts for Each Session

DEI

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Indentity-based Design and Ideation

Social & Emotional Learning

Social & Emotional Learning

Encourage Self-awareness, Peer Collaboration, & Peer Evaluation

Superhero Rap Storytelling

Superhero Rap Storytelling

Creating STEAM Superhero Version of themselves

Our Dah-Varsity platform uses learning engineering in a gamified virtual learning environment that integrates Hip-Hop culture, Superheroes, and STEAM storytelling. We virtually provide practical real-world simulations. Our platform predicts education and career potential, offering real-time guidance, mentorship, and support to sustain STEAM learning pathways and careers.

Dah-Varsity can virtually simulate any industry. Here's what we have currently.

Photos
Videos

Learning engineering feeds our AI model to personalize user experience.

T0YZSTEAM CURRICULUM

Our curriculum was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and covers these topics.

TOYZSTORIES FROM OUR SUPERHERO COMMUNITY

5000+ students since 2014 and rapidly growing

Meet Timothy

Timothy is an African-American student who has been in our program since he was 10 years old. We hosted him and a group of parents and students to CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center as part of our programming.

Meet Rebecca

Rebecca’s passion for computer science started in sixth grade when they took their first class designing games on Scratch. They went on to take more classes and attend coding camps.

Meet Manling

Before 16 in a small town called Taishan – a country-level city in Guangdong province, Manling  grew up learning English phonetic transcription at an after-school tutor center during summer breaks when they were about 11 years old.

Meet Kennedy

Kennedy is a Computer Science major who is passionate about game development. She learned the basics of creating games in a CMU + Howard collaboration class and is now continuing her passion for creating games to help others.

SUPERHERO COLLABORATION WITH HBCUs

Howard and Carnegie Mellon Universities and Toyz Electronics are collaborating to build better pathways for underrepresented and underserved students into the STEAM fields

From our I-Corps Research, a collaboration was created between Carnegie Mellon University and Howard University to democratize creative technology education for Historical Black Colleges and Universities. This is a model for other such collaborations. Unity Technologies is supporting the effort. Toyz Electronics is also co-teaching Howard University Students programing for game development for Windows mixed reality, GitHub implimentation in production workflow and Unity.

TOYZMAKERS AT EVERY STAGE K-WORKFORCE

ToyzSteam is a modular framework that can be modified for different age groups and focuses of interest.

Elementary School

We Worked with BNY Mellon, Girl Scouts, Red Chair Pittsburgh, and Women in Technology. Students learned how to express themselves and communicate their ideas. They get exposed to potential careers in STEAM industries. 

Middle School

We worked with Middle School students to ideate and create. They apply themselves with fundamental building blocks for future careers in STEAM.

High School

We worked with High School Workshop at Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Students are trained on utilizing creativity tools in an application development environment. They learn hands on and get exposed to a variety of skills in several industries. 

College

We worked with College Students at Carnegie Mellon University to get expereintal learning. We use Project Based Learning and industry standard tools. Our training provides pathways for proficiency and certification.

TOYZ IN THE PRESS

TOYZSTEAM TESTIMONIALS

5/5
"You have a lot of territory covered with all of this. And I’m actually glad to see METALS involved in terms of evaluating, to see are you accomplishing your learning objectives. So, some of that entertainment you picked up from some of our ETC students in the past, now you’re broadening that. So, I just look forward to seeing where all this work leads."
Mike Christel
Teaching Professor, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

5/5
"A lot of the conversations that we’ve had with Damola and Wole and Dr. Victoria Mattingly have to do with their democratization of access to technology and creating. Because in the nonprofit sector, we know that as we’re meeting today’s needs, we also have to be thinking about job creation for tomorrow. So, creating an equitable environment for that is extremely important"
Emily Francis
Program Manager At Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership
5/5
"These kinds of tools and ideas and innovations most important thing is to spread the word. Get people aware of it. Be able to see the practicality and the possibilities presented. draw those people who are going to be the early adopters the people who really want to get engaged in it and spend the time with it upfront to to build the early successes, and then it grows from there."
Stuart Blacklaw
Provost And Executive Vice President At The Community College Of Allegheny County

SUPERHERO PARTNERS

WATCH OUR FOUNDERS' PITCH

Play Video

STUDENTS BECOME TOYZ MAKERS

SUPPORT TOYZSTEAM

Via New Sun Rising #TOYZSTEAM Dah-Varsity Scholars is a fiscally sponsored program focused on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) creator industry.

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