Patent Pending STEMsaic Research Impacts LLC

SciBuilder

Turn a bottle into a lab.

Start with what's in your recycling bin. Add a camera. Connect free AI analysis tools. Run a real experiment that generates real data: no grant, no specialized equipment required. Built on 30+ years of NSF-funded Bottle Biology research, decades of classroom teaching, statewide citizen science, and research-instrument entrepreneurship.

"I co-founded a company that built amazing research instruments. At $5,000 to $20,000 they were beautiful, but most people could never use them. They could not scale in college and university research labs, and certainly not in classrooms. SciBuilder is what I wish we had built first: real science that starts under $30."

Travis Tangen, Founder
Try 3 Free Tools in Your Browser → See What You Can Build
NSF SBIR in preparation 30+ years of bottle science
In Active Development

SciBuilder is in active development and is being co-designed with researchers, teachers, students, and the DIY at-home community during this phase. Three free SparkLab tools are live today. Physical kits are in development. Every label on this page tells you which is which.

30+
Years of NSF-funded bottle science lineage
120+
NSF projects shaped by the founder's broader impacts work
9
Science domains with experiment pathways
<$30
Where SciBuilder kits start (our last company's cheapest product was $150)
The Gap

Real science requires expensive equipment and specialized labs. Or does it?

Between a $3 toy and a $5,000 research microscope lies a vast, unoccupied middle. Educators, students, and curious minds are stuck choosing between playthings and instruments they can't afford, access, or understand.

The materials have been there all along: in your recycling bin, at the dollar store, in every classroom. What's been missing is the system that transforms them into real science.

The insight: bottles, boxes, and panels aren't just containers. They're science chambers. All they needed was a universal connector ecosystem, a family of instruments, and an AI partner to make sense of what you observe.

Try it yourself: Bug DJ, our organism path tracking tool, runs free in your browser right now. Open Bug DJ →

The current reality
The $150 to $5,000 dead zone
Toy kits that don't teach anything real. Lab instruments that require training, budgets, and dedicated space. Nothing in between for the people who actually want to do science.
The SciBuilder approach
Affordable. Modular. Real science.
Start with a recycled bottle and a SparkBlock connector. Add a camera. Connect the AI. Run a real experiment that generates real data, without a lab, a grant, or a PhD.
Full prototype assembly
Full prototype assembly Inverted 2-liter bottle, SparkBlocks ring around the base, SparkEye camera dock on the neck, moss-and-twig terrarium inside.
The Platform

Three form factors. One connector ecosystem.

SciBuilder isn't a single product. It's a platform. Bottles, panels, and boxes all connect through universal SparkBlocks, turning everyday materials into a coordinated observation system.

SparkBottle
Transform any recyclable bottle into a sealed science chamber. Biology, ecology, aquatics, fermentation, terrariums: cylinders are nature's lab tubes.
SparkBlocks
Universal Connector
The spine that links everything. Snap instruments to any bottle, panel, or box.
SparkPanel
Pre-perforated cardboard and foam panels become observation walls. Physics, chemistry, optics, light transmission: flat surfaces configured for science.
SparkBox
Any cardboard box becomes a controlled environment. Ecosystems, dark chambers, isolation experiments: boxes create the walls of your experiment.
SparkBlocks ring, looking down
SparkBlocks ring, looking down Four-arm connector cross. Universal stud geometry so off-the-shelf blocks snap on.

One connector ecosystem. Three form factors. Infinite experiments. Any material. Any organism. Any question. Built from what's already around you.

Process

From curiosity to data in four steps

No lab required. No specialized training. Just curiosity, materials, and a system designed to make real science accessible.

Three-step build
Three-step build Left: full assembly. Middle: dock removed. Right: ring around the bottle base. Modular at every layer.
1
Choose your chamber
Start with a bottle, panel, box, or combine them. Your experiment determines your chamber, not the other way around.
2
Connect your instruments
Cameras, lights, sensors, and samplers snap into place via SparkBlocks. Modular means nothing is wasted. Reconfigure for every new question.
3
Design your experiment
Follow a protocol, use a template, or freestyle. The system guides without constraining. You're the scientist, not the instruction booklet.
4
AI spots what you missed
Bug DJ tracks organism paths in real time. Timelapse Generator stitches days of growth into seconds. Pathway Tracer maps the motion of marbles, pendulums, and rolling carts. You observe. AI helps you see what you built.
Products

What you can use today

We lead with what's real. Three free tools are live right now, free starter print files are rolling out through the newsletter, and the first physical kit is in development. Everything else lives on the roadmap below.

SparkLab Free Tools
Bug DJ, Timelapse Generator, and Pathway Tracer: three working analysis tools that run free in your browser today. Computer vision tracking, on-device timelapse, and open data formats (CC-BY-4.0).
● 3 tools live now, free Try the tools →
Free Starter STL Files
SparkBlocks starter print files plus a quickstart guide for your first bottle build. Free digital download, delivered through the newsletter as releases roll out.
First release rolling out Get the free pack →
SparkBottle Starter Kit
The first physical kit: connectors and build components that turn recyclable bottles into experiment chambers. Kits will range from $9 consumer packs to $799 institutional tiers.
Coming soon Join the first-in-line list →
The roadmap (the rest of the platform)
SciBuilder is designed as a coordinated family of subsystems. These are planned and prototyped at different stages, and they ship when they're ready, not before. Newsletter subscribers see each one first.
SparkEye imaging SparkGlow light rigs SpinBottle rotation SparkBuild construction SparkPanel SparkBox SparkDock SparkSolar SparkLab AI suite
SparkLab Tools

Three free tools. Working now. No signup.

Real analysis software, built first so you can do real science before a single kit ships. Open one in your browser and try it on your own footage today.

Bug DJ
Real-time organism path tracking with computer vision. Point a camera at an insect chamber, calibrate the scale, and watch movement become data. Exports the open .bugzone format (CC-BY-4.0).
● Live now, free
Open Bug DJ →
Timelapse Generator
Turn an image sequence into a shareable timelapse video, entirely on your device. Sort frames, add timestamps and a title card, export WebM. Days of growth become seconds of insight.
● Live now, free
Open Timelapse Generator →
Pathway Tracer
Generalized motion tracking for physics and beyond: marble runs, pendulums, rolling carts. Scale calibration, semi-automatic tracking, and CSV plus .pathzone export for your own analysis.
● Live now, free
Open Pathway Tracer →

Free now. Free later. The tools stay free; kits and guides fund the platform.

Digital Products

Print it, build it, learn it

SciBuilder's digital products arrive before the physical kits do. File packs, build guides, and video setup guides will sell as beehiiv digital products through the newsletter, and the free starter STL pack plus quickstart guide leads the way. Join the list and each release comes to your inbox as it lands.

3D Print File Packs
STL and STEP files for SparkBlocks connectors, bottle adapters, and camera mounts. Print them on any home or library 3D printer. Sold as digital products through the newsletter, with a free starter pack to begin.
First releases rolling out
Illustrated Build Guides
Step-by-step illustrated guides for turning bottles, boxes, and panels into experiment chambers. Materials lists, build sequences, and experiment starters, written for non-engineers.
First releases rolling out
Video Setup Guides
Watch a build happen end to end: camera placement, timelapse settings, connecting your footage to the free SparkLab analysis tools. Short, practical, and tied to specific experiments.
First releases rolling out
Free to start: starter STL pack + quickstart guide

Join the newsletter and the first free release (starter SparkBlocks print files plus a quickstart guide) comes to your inbox as it rolls out.

Get the free starter pack →
Audience

Science doesn't belong to one kind of person

SciBuilder is designed for everyone who's ever wanted to observe, understand, and document the living world around them.

Students (K-12)
Hands-on science that's actually engaging. Real organisms, real data, real results, not a worksheet about someone else's experiment.
College and University Labs
Researchers and professors who want an affordable, scalable observation platform for their courses, their grant projects, and their community impact. Built to fit community colleges and undergraduate labs as much as research universities.
Teachers
Classroom kits with complete protocols, NGSS-aligned learning objectives, and assessment tools. Science that fits your curriculum.
Researchers
Crowd-sourced data collection at scale. SciBuilder platforms deployed across homes and classrooms become distributed sensor networks.
Plant Parents
You already have the kitchen counter. You already have the plants. Now you can actually see what's happening inside that propagation jar: track root growth frame by frame, compare light conditions, share your timelapse with other obsessives. Beautiful science, no lab coat required.
Citizen Scientists
Real research from your home, backyard, or neighborhood. Contribute to distributed studies. Generate data that matters.
Terrarium up close
Terrarium up close Moss, twigs, substrate. The kind of slow-change scene SparkLab timelapse tools are built for.
Top-down through the dock window
Top-down through the dock window What the camera sees: the live terrarium framed through the SparkEye opening.
Through the ring, into the substrate
Through the ring, into the substrate Moss and soil visible through the ring window. Block geometry frames the science.
Experiment Domains

What can you study with SciBuilder?

Nine domains, each with established protocols, curriculum connections, and AI analysis pathways built in from the start.

Plant Biology
Growth rates, phototropism, gravitropism, germination, propagation, root development
Entomology
Insect behavior, habitat design, movement tracking, life cycle documentation
Microbiology
Bacterial cultures, algae growth, fermentation tracking, colony expansion
Aquatic Science
Aquaponics, water quality monitoring, aquatic organism habitat, filtration systems
Microplastics
Filtration experiments, visual identification, spectral analysis, contamination tracking
Light & Optics
Refraction, spectrum separation, color filtration, transmission through materials
Sound & Vibration
Acoustics, resonance, vibration effects on organisms, sound-plant interaction studies
Ecosystems
Closed terrariums, vermicomposting, food webs, nutrient cycling, biosphere design
Science Art
Light painting, growth pattern photography, physics beauty, bio-art documentation
Featured: real software, working today
Bug DJ traces organism paths in real time
Point a camera at an insect chamber. Bug DJ tracks movement with computer vision, calibrates pixels to real-world scale, and exports your data in the open .bugzone format (CC-BY-4.0). It runs free in your browser, and so do Timelapse Generator and Pathway Tracer.
Try Bug DJ →
SparkLab AI

Your experiment partner, not your replacement

AI doesn't do the science. You do. AI helps you see what you built, tracking what the eye misses and measuring what the hand can't hold.

The platform collects huge, fast streams of observation data, and AI tracks it and makes sense of it. AI also helps us build the tools themselves. Different layers, different purposes.

Bug DJ
● Live, free
Timelapse Generator
● Live, free
Pathway Tracer
● Live, free
Spectrum Lab
Planned
"AI doesn't do the science. You do. AI helps you see what you built."
You bring
Curiosity and creativity
  • Design the experiment and choose the organism
  • Set the variables and the observation period
  • Ask the question no protocol anticipated
  • Interpret results in context of your world
  • Make meaning from what you observe
AI brings
Pattern recognition at scale
  • Track growth rates frame by frame across weeks
  • Detect movement and behavioral changes overnight
  • Measure color shifts, path lengths, colony boundaries
  • Compare your results to past runs automatically
  • Surface what you would have missed

Your observations are fuel for AI

Here's what makes SciBuilder different from every AI toy on the shelf: you generate the data. The creativity to design an observation, the intuition to choose what to watch, the patience to document phenomena no one else has noticed: that's unlimited, and no algorithm can replace it.

But when your unique, in-person observations flow into AI analysis (growth patterns compared across hundreds of similar setups, behavioral data matched against reference frameworks, your single experiment joining a network of experiments asking the same question), the combination becomes extraordinarily powerful.

This work is moving through real channels: active solicitations and submissions with federal agencies including NSF, and ongoing conversations with industry partners. SciBuilder is actively pursuing NSF and USDA broader-impacts collaborations to bring these AI tools, along with sustainable reuse of materials, into bigger grant programs.

Human creativity designs the observation. AI finds the patterns you couldn't see alone. That's not automation. That's amplification.

Foundation

Built on 30+ years of bottle science innovation

SciBuilder isn't a startup idea. It's the synthesis of three decades of ecosystem observation research, hands-on science education, and deep partnership with the communities this platform serves.

1989 to 1993
Bottle Biology, NSF Funded
Paul Williams at UW-Madison builds the foundational Bottle Biology program with NSF support. Recyclable containers become science chambers in classrooms across the country. SciBuilder builds directly on that lineage.
1996
First Classroom Bottle Builds
Travis, then a science teacher, first uses recycled bottles and materials to build science experiments in his classroom. Three decades of classroom bottle science start here.
2019
CoSE Co-founded, NASA Collaboration
Travis co-founds CoSE with Richard Barker and Simon Gilroy (UW-Madison). The team builds 3D-printed research instruments priced $5,000 to $17,500, pursues NASA SBIR proposals, and collaborates with NASA JPL on a lunar greenhouse: growing plants for the Moon and running microgravity experiments on Earth. The modular instrument concept takes shape.
2025
SciBuilder Platform Development Begins
Formal development of the SciBuilder platform begins under STEMsaic Research Impacts LLC. Bottle Biology lineage + CoSE modular instruments + AI analysis converge into a unified system.
2026
Patent Pending (Prov. App. 64/094,636), NSF SBIR Project Pitch
Intellectual property in preparation. NSF SBIR Phase I Project Pitch submitting June 2026. A companion NSF FINDERS Foundry planning proposal (Bug Tracer and Tech Bottle, with Sector 67 makerspace and MG21 school) also submitted June 2026. Three free SparkLab tools live.
Travis Tangen, Founder
  • PhD on STEM partnerships, near completion
  • 20+ years experience in science education and curriculum design
  • Broader impacts designer and evaluator across 120+ NSF projects
  • Co-founder, CoSE (Collaborative Science Environment Inc.)
  • WARF (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) experience
  • Direct lineage to Bottle Biology, the NSF-funded program created by Paul Williams
STEMsaic Research Impacts LLC
  • Evaluation consulting for NSF-funded STEM partnerships
  • Team Guides for science educators and researchers
  • Participatory evaluation methodology and design
  • Partnership design for community-based science programs
  • Built in Madison, Wisconsin
Collaboration

Partners & collaborators

SciBuilder is being developed in partnership with institutions that have been doing accessible science for decades.

Interested in being a pilot site? We're actively looking for K-12 classrooms, university programs, and informal science centers to partner with for the first wave of SciBuilder deployments.

Contact us about partnership →