For scientists & organizations
Scientists do the science. Odyssey builds the bridge.
Odyssey Discovery connects classrooms with the people doing field science. We don't claim your work, we don't speak for your employer, and we don't ask for broad rights in exchange for reaching students. This page explains exactly how working with us works.
Access
Science should reach people.
Explorer is designed to expand access to scientists and their work — not put science behind a wall. Scientist profiles and approved public field content can be explored freely.
Schools pay for the educational experience Odyssey Discovery builds around that science: live classroom connections, educator resources, project participation, Discovery Circles, coordination and school-wide access.
Scientists keep ownership of their work and decide what they share and how it may be used.
Our job is to build the bridge between the science happening in the world and the classrooms that want to experience it.
What we bring
The education side is our job.
Odyssey builds and operates the infrastructure that lets scientific work reach classrooms well — so participating costs you time you would otherwise spend on logistics.
- — School and district relationships
- — Teacher coordination and scheduling
- — Program and session design
- — Translating research for grade levels
- — Technology, hosting, and platform infrastructure
- — Communications and program administration
- — Classroom resources built around your work
- — Reach and engagement reporting
What stays yours
Ownership does not transfer.
Unless a separate written agreement says otherwise, you and your organization keep everything you bring:
- — Your research, data, and findings
- — Your photographs, video, and graphics
- — Your presentations and written work
- — Your methods and materials
- — Your intellectual property
Permission
Permission is specific, every time.
Saying yes to a classroom session is not saying yes to marketing, advertising, a documentary, or a social campaign. Each use is asked for on its own terms, and you can say yes to one and no to another.
We also keep relationship language accurate. A scientist taking part is a participating scientist — not an institutional partnership, sponsorship, or endorsement. We name your affiliation only as affiliation, and we don't use organization logos or build "trusted by" walls on that basis.
Credit goes where the science came from. We never present another organization's research as Odyssey's own.
Science and funding are separate
Taking part is not a fundraising ask.
A scientist agreeing to work with classrooms creates no obligation for their organization to fund anything. We do not treat participation as a path to a budget.
Separately, some organizations choose to fund school access so more students can take part. That is a different relationship, with its own terms, and it never buys scientific conclusions, editorial control, student information, favorable representation, or a promise that any particular scientist will participate.
How funded school access works →Ways to start
You don't need a partnership to try this.
One conversation
A short live session with classrooms already scheduled and prepared by us.
A single profile
Let educators see what you study, in plain language, with your credit and your framing.
An existing project
Point us to work already public and student-accessible, and we handle the classroom side.
A test collaboration
Try one thing. If it was worth your time, we talk about the next one.
How we're structured
Plainly stated.
Odyssey Discovery is a mission-driven, for-profit education company (Kirsten Alburg LLC, doing business as Odyssey Discovery, in Michigan). We build and operate programs that connect classrooms with scientists, fieldwork, and real-world discovery.
Schools pay for the program we build and run. Organizations may fund access for schools that couldn't otherwise reach it. Scientists are not charged to participate, and participation is never sold as a product belonging to us.
As programs run, we report back what we can verify — classrooms reached, states, and student counts — so you can see what your time actually did.
Ask us anything