Meet the KneoExplorers

Become a KneoWorld Explorer! Join our brave and thoughtful team on an interactive learning adventure, designed to build confidence and skills using the power of storytelling, hands-on activities, and engaging games. The KneoExplorers not only make the learning process fun but also help develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students.

The KneoExplorers' Mission

The KneoExplorers come from a generation of space-traveling families who left this planet many years ago. Now, they’re back on Earth and are hoping you can help guide their return by solving problems using literacy, math, and social-emotional learning skills.

The Diversity of KneoExplorers

The KneoExplorers are just like us, with a wide range of backgrounds, cultures, and abilities that are all valued and celebrated. The two things they all have in common are being inclusive—and curious!

Meet Our KneoExplorers Below

Get to know them – flip over to discover their strengths, challenges, and what their interests are.

Laila

Compassionate, Creative Leader
KneoExplorers

Laila

Strengths: Decision making
Challenges: Self-confidence
Interests: Painting and drawing
Find me: Outside in nature
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Alfie

Collaborative, Empathetic leader
KneoExplorers

Alfie

Strengths: Brain teasers
Challenges: Self-Shyness
Interests: Designing puzzles
Find me: With their droid, KB1
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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KB1

Communication support droid
KneoExplorers

KB1

Strengths: Talking and communicating
Challenges: Swimming
Interests: Data and information
Find me: Wherever Alfie is
Type: Robot
Team: KneoExplorers
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Koko

Data interpreter and mentor
KneoExplorers

Koko

Strengths: Numbers—and jokes!
Challenges: Fear of bears
Interests: Analyzing data
Find me: Laughing with friends
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Mei

Chief problem-solver
KneoExplorers

Mei

Strengths: Growing plants
Challenges: Can be too helpful
Interests: Sustainability
Find me:In the garden
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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JJ

Wellness and safety director
KneoExplorers

JJ

Strengths: Talking through feelings
Challenges: Anxious thoughts
Interests: Nutrition
Find me: In the kitchen
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Emma

Leader of adventures
KneoExplorers

Emma

Strengths: Curiosity and bravery
Challenges: Making time to rest
Interests: Learning through travel
Find me: Anywhere but base camp
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Woof

Friend to all
KneoExplorers

Woof

Strengths: Connecting to others
Challenges: Always hungry
Interests: Finding new friends
Find me: Hanging with Jeff
Type: Dog
Team: KneoExplorers
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Jeff

Helpful designer and builder
KneoExplorers

Jeff

Strengths: Engineering
Challenges: Feeling overwhelmed
Interests: Building structures
Find me: Drawing blueprints
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Andres

Imaginative creator, builder
KneoExplorers

Andres

Strengths: Creating beauty
Challenges: Overthinking
Interests: Blocks, mazes, and puzzles
Find me: In the treehouse
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Annan

Daring food scientist
KneoExplorers

Annan

Strengths: Making healthy, delicious food
Challenges: Being too adventurous with flavor
Interests: Health benefits of plants
Find me: Cooking up a storm
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Seth

Communications expert
KneoExplorers

Seth

Strengths: Technology
Challenges: Impatience
Interests: Science and technology
Find me: At the control panel
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Zoe

Farmer and nature-lover
KneoExplorers

Zoe

Strengths: Experimenting with plants
Challenges: Can get over-excited
Interests: All living things
Find me: Foraging for food
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Soha

Caring animal expert
KneoExplorers

Soha

Strengths: Very strong senses
Challenges: Tires easily
Interests: Music and dancing
Find me: Enjoying colors of the forest
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Tanya

Translator and communicator
KneoExplorers

Tanya

Strengths: Cultural understanding
Challenges: Messy and unorganized
Interests: Dancing and storytelling
Find me: Talking with friends
Type: Human
Team: KneoExplorers
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Comprehensive Learning with KneoWorld

KneoWorld’s educational approach combines these engaging stories with curriculum-aligned lessons in reading, math, STEM, and social-emotional learning, providing a comprehensive and immersive learning experience for students.

Laila

Character Type: Leader

Character Skill: Chief leader: Most senior decision maker of the group

Laila is a leader. Her ability to inspire others and her positive outlook makes everyone want to follow and spend time with her. Laila doesn’t always want to be a leader though, it makes her uncomfortable. She worries she might not make the right decisions and lead everyone in the wrong direction. She thinks being a leader is a big responsibility and she doesn’t always feel confident to lead. However, Laila is an excellent leader because she always thinks of others and has the team’s best interests in mind when she makes decisions. Laila spends a lot of time painting and drawing and she finds her energy when she creates with Soha and Tanya writing poetry, writing music, and dancing. You can often find them in the garden, giggling and happy.

Character Relationships:

– She creates art with Soha (music and poetry) and Tanya (dancing), giggling and happy.
– Works in a leadership team with Koko, Alfie and Emma.

Alfie

Character Type: Leader

Character Skill: Deputy Chief Leader: Right hand person of Chief, project management

Alfie is a natural leader with a strong empathic ability to know and identify what everyone is feeling around him. He uses his droid, KB1, to communicate, and needs KB1 to prompt him in certain social situations. Alfie designs puzzles and other kinds of brain games for his team to solve. He loves to stump them, but feels most happy when they finally solve his puzzles and then beg him for more. Alfie’s leadership skills blend well with Koko, Laila, and Emma. His ability to collaborate with others makes him a valuable team member and leader for the KneoExplorers explorations and challenges.

Character Relationships:

– He uses his droid, KB1, to communicate, and needs KB1 to prompt him in certain social situations.
– Alfie’s leadership skills blend well with Koko, Laila, and Emma
– Special, fun relationship with Koko

Koko

Character Type: Leader

Character Skill: Knowledge Leader: Offers direction and mentorship in science and environment, risk assessor

Koko’s a genius with numbers. His ability to understand and use numbers to tell stories is extraordinary. Koko’s ability to read, analyze and use numbers to communicate information helps the team with gathering data and using the data to inform decisions. Koko is hilarious too. His funny sense of humor is smart and kind. The other KneoExplorers laugh until their stomachs hurt whenever he gets started with his antics. Since Koko is also one of the older KneoExplorers, he helps lead the team and can always be counted on to use his genius and empathy to make positive decisions with the others that always work out best for the team.

Character Relationships:

– Works well with Annan to help intepret data and problem-solving – Enjoys guessing Alfie’s puzzles and working on good jokes together
– In leadership team with Alfie, Laila and Emma.

Mei

Character Type: Leader

Character Skill: Basecamp Manager: Manages logistics for equipment, food, and environmental impacts

Give Mei any problem and she can solve it, no problem is too difficult. She plants and grows seeds everywhere – outside, in her room, in the kitchen, in closets. You never know what kinds of plants Mei will try to grow next. Mei’s abundant love for all living things guides her mission to learn about and support sustainable systems on all the planets. Her friends love that she is always willing to help, though sometimes she helps too much.

Character Relationships:

– Love of plants puts her close with Zoe in the garden.
– Her work puts her as a close collaborator with Annan, Jeff and Andres, – She has a peaceful, quiet friendship with Jeff.

JJ

Character Type: Collaborator

Character Skill: Medical Leader: First aid support and general bio knowledge

JJ knows everything about wellness and nutrition. Feeling sad? JJ can help with lots of ideas about ways to work through sadness and when to ask for more help. Feeling hungry? JJ spends a lot of time playing with Zoe and Annan in the kitchen, creating and concocting new dishes to eat. JJ sometimes worries about taking risks though, he likes to play it safe. Luckily he has teammates that encourage him to have more fun and take safe risks. Even though JJ can feel anxious and uncomfortable sometimes, he knows many strategies to help him work through his feelings and feel better.

Character Relationships:

– JJ spends a lot of time playing with Zoe and Annan in the kitchen
– Enjoys exercising with Emma.

Emma

Character Type: Collaborator

Character Skill: Adventure Leader: Physically capable, risk-taker etc

Emma loves exploring. She is fearless and always willing to take chances and risks. The other KneoExplorers have to remind her that she needs to be at least a little careful sometimes to keep her safe. Emma is also curious about everything. She is always asking questions and if she cannot find the answer herself, she goes to her teammates to help her answer her questions. Emma is a leader and her high energy level makes everyone else tired, but even great leaders need to stop and rest.

Character Relationships:

– Emma spends time with Koko, who answers all of her questions and tries to keep her safe/warn her in dangerous situations 
– Works in team with Laila, Alfie, and Koko. – Exercises with JJ.

Woof

Character Type: Collaborator

Character Skill: Social Leader: General well-being and behavioural support

 Woof is KneoWorld’s wonder dog. Woof’s ability to empathize with others makes him an important teammate to all the KneoExplorers. His intuitive nature allows him to connect with everyone in their very own way. Whether the crew has had a long day of time travel or in between solving a very important problem he is there to support the team. Woof loves a great healthy helping of the best dishes (with Annan his co-conspirator), he loves the outdoors, and is always eager to explore with the team—especially the energetic Emma.

Character Relationships:

– Side by side with Jeff. Special friendships with Annan (meals) and Emma (outdoors/exploring).

Jeff

Character Type: Collaborator

Character Skill: Engineer: Design for structures and processes of expedition

Jeff has been an engineer since he was a toddler. He spent many days using blocks, pillows, and anything else he could find to build structures and destroy them with one swift kick. Jeff and Woof make a strong team. Jeff and Woof listen to the problems and needs of others, and quickly prototype solutions. These solutions might or might not work, but that is okay, Jeff accepts failure as an opportunity to learn. At first glance, Jeff seems like he would rather be left alone, but he is really a party animal when given the chance.

Character Relationships:

– Jeff and Woof are a special team.
– Jeff gets along well with Mei, the kind of friends that can be together without talking/needing to talk.
– Jeff works well with Andres, who helps create a lot of his designs/projects.

Andres

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Builder: Implements engineered designs, problem solves

Andres loves blocks, mazes, and puzzles. With an eye for detail he’s always focused on the big picture. Andres loves to create healthy and beautiful environments for people to live with nature. He likes to spend his time thinking, he analyzes everything. Sometimes he spends so much time thinking that it can take him a long time to get things done. People might think he’s daydreaming and goofing off, but Andres is really just taking his time to analyze things from every angle and to have a complete understanding.

Character Relationships:

– Andres works with Jeff on designing structures around camp and solutions for problems.
– Collaborates with Seth on the science/tech side of builds.
– Special friendship with Soha, who appreciates Andres ability to see the beauty in things.

Annan

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Cook: Uses available ingredients to maximise nutrition

Annan creates beauty with plants and nature. You can often find Annan with Zoe and Soha in the garden and JJ in the kitchen. Food is Annan’s passion, working with JJ to find the health benefits of different kinds of foods and working with Zoe and Soha to learn more about their bold new food findings (Zoe grown, Soha gathered). Annan then combines what he learns about different plants’ health benefits and their natural, colorful beauty to create some of the most amazing dishes you have ever seen, smelled, touched, and tasted. Annan also loves working with numbers and science. Koko often comes to Annan for help to read and understand the data he collects. Many people don’t know that chefs are scientists and mathematicians. Cooking is science!

Character Relationships:

– Spends time with Zoe and Soha in the garden.
– Spends time with JJ in the kitchen.
– Koko often comes to Annan for help to read and understand the data he collects.
– Annan works with Mei on logistics of food etc.

Seth

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Record-keeper: Writer/journalist to document expedition

Seth is an expert communicator. He pays close attention to what people say and what people do (he knows communication is not always about what people say). Seth likes to combine science with technology to give people new ways to collaborate and share ideas with each other. He is a leader and always listens to his teammates’ ideas and thoughts. Seth’s brain works fast, sometimes he is impatient with others and loses his temper. Seth wants to make all the worlds in the solar system better, but he often focuses on the problems so much that he forgets to notice the good things too.

Character Relationships:

– Spends time with Tanya when communicating and documenting exploration. He can get frustrated with Tanya’s disorganisation/messiness. But Tanya also helps Seth to see the bright side of situations and calms him down. 
– Likes science and technology and collaborates with Andres to bring those elements to structures/problem solving.

Zoe

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Farmer: to cultivate crops/assess local flora

Zoe loves being outside and she feels at peace with nature. Her dream is to live on a large farm surrounded by animals, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Zoe explores how plants can be used for clothing, medicine, and delicious food. She is also extremely creative with experimenting different ways to mix and prepare plants in colorful combinations to eat. Zoe’s ideas can be tastier to Zoe than the other KneoExplorers though. The others are not as excited to eat the new exotic root vegetables Zoe digs up.They think some of her new findings taste more like dirt than food, but Zoe never gives up, always looking for new sustainable ways to use nature.

Character Relationships:

– Spends time with Annan and JJ in the kitchen.
– Loves talking plants with Soha and exploring native options/propagations.
– Mei is a regular visitor to Zoe and the garden.

Soha

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Wildlife wrangler: Affinity with animals

Soha sees colors and movement around her every waking minute of her day. Her colorful spirit engages all her senses. She loves to notice all the beautiful things she sees. She is the first to hear all the noises in her environment. She smells all the lovely and not so lovely odors around her. Soha touches everything, she wants to experience the feel of things she sees (are they soft? Rough? crunchy?). Soha believes her sense of taste is so strong that she can learn a lot about new food items just with one taste of something.Soha’s extraordinary ability to tune into her senses can overwhelm her though. It gives her so much information that she tires easily and needs to recharge many times during the day.

Character Relationships:

– Spends creative time (love of music) with Laila (painting, drawing) and Tanya (dancing)
– Works with Zoe and Annan identifying native foods, plus suggesting and testing recipes

Tanya

Character Type: Do-er

Character Skill: Translator: intra expedition communicator and external communicator

Tanya never sits still, she is always moving and creating. Her love of dance inspires her to study and learn about people from all over the solar system and their cultures. Tanya speaks over twenty languages and is an expert language interpreter. Others sometimes see Tanya’s love to create as messy and unorganized which makes Tanya feel sad. She wants to use what she learns about other cultures to create dances and movements to tell stories, but her everyday KneoExplorer duties take so much time she does not always make time to create.

Character Relationships:

– Spends creative time (love of dancing) with Laila (painting, drawing) and Soha (music).
– Works alongside Seth to help communications and documentation of their exploration.