Frequently Asked Questions

What's up with the name?

A lot of people have expressed confusion about the title of the comic, "MiSTEam", especially those of you that have only known us through the web. So here's an explanation of where the name came from:

For as long as I've worked at the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education, we've always gone by our acronym: MSTE, which is understandable because "The Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education" is kind of a mouthful. But when you say the letters M-S-T-E fast enough, is sounds like you are saying "misty". So when you talk to someone from the office, they will always refer to it as "misty".

The personnel at the MSTE office has always been referred to as the "MSTE Team", and since they are the subject of the comic, I wanted to name it after them. So I wanted to convey in writing the fact that we always pronounce it "Misty Team". But "Misty Team" was a bit of a clunky name and didn't make the connection between MSTE and Misty very well. So I noticed that "team" shares its first two letters with the last two letters of MSTE, and therefore shortened the name to "misteam". Then, to accentuate the fact that this was in fact referring to MSTE, I capitalized the letters M, S, T, and E in the name, which gives the final name of the comic: "MiSTEam".

So that's probably more information than you ever wanted to know, but at least now you know that a lot of thought went into the name. :-)

Why doesn't the comic have any female characters?

As I mentioned in this strip, I simply can't draw the female frame. maybe someday as my artistic skills improve I'll see fit to introduce a woman to the cast, but for now it ain't gonna happen.