Building Stuff with NOVA
Photo of me in the escape room finale set.
Hosted by professional engineer and former NASA researcher Dr. Nehemiah Mabry (“Dr. Nee”), “ BUILDING STUFF WITH NOVA ” invites audiences to explore the world of engineering through livestreams every weekday on Twitch, featuring content including gameplay, interactive expert interviews, and virtual field trips — plus an engineering-themed, in-person escape room, designed and built in collaboration with the audience and the escape room design team, Trapology.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, it explored how live, interactive STEM shows can deepen learning, foster belonging, and reach more diverse audiences than traditional formats—evaluation and learning documents linked below.
Through Twitch chat, the audience can interact live with Dr. Nee, ask questions, vote for ideas, and contribute to the content’s direction. The streams will culminate in a live, interactive experience over four nights at the end of October, in which Twitch audiences and players on site at GBH studios in Boston will work together to conquer the escape room by solving engineering-related puzzles. Join NOVA on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/novabuildingstuff.
Building Stuff won BEST MULTI-PLATFORM FACTUAL PROJECT at The Buzzies Awards hosted by the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers.
Image of WCSFP Buzzies Award
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Content Producer:
Developing and scheduling daily straming content
Back-end live streaming support
Production Coordinator:
managing guests, field visits
signing off with legal
Production Assistant:
In-studio support during the live finale
Project Highlights
STEMedia was tasked with developing and producing the content streamed daily on Twitch, resulting in over 100 streams!
We covered all engineering sub-fields, from structural (Dr. Nee’s expertise) to biomedical, aviation, environmental, robotics, and even everyday building/making.
We aimed to include a fun activity that the viewers could participate in, so it didn’t feel like a live podcast or rigid/corporate.
Daily streams included guest interviews, gaming, building IRL, virtual field trips, and escape room prep.
NOVA and GBH provided the infrastructure to do the live stream, live fact-checking, and marketing for the project.
We pulled from our network to invite over 30 diverse STEM guests and produced 5 on-location field trips for the project.
We co-developed and produced the epic four-night live studio escape room finale with the NOVA and WGBH teams.
💬 90% of viewers said they learned something new
🔁 Repeat viewers reported increased confidence in trying STEM activities
🌍 The format reached diverse audiences, including those underrepresented in traditional science media.
Rank tier of the guests we invited onto the live.
Rank tier of the hands-on activities and the field trips we did live.
