$2.9M grant expanding mobile STEM lab fleet for Texas students
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A nearly $3 million grant from the Texas Education Agency is helping expand STEM educational access to Texas students statewide.
Since 2020, Learning Undefeated has operated a mobile STEM lab that travels around Texas to bring hands-on learning opportunities to students. With the one mobile STEM lab, Learning Undefeated serves approximately 30 schools each year; following the grant award, the organization will expand its fleet to nine mobile labs, allowing connections with hundreds of schools annually.
Janeé Pelletier, Learning Undefeated's chief marketing officer, said hundreds of teachers request visits from the mobile labs. Now, she said the organization will be able to meet more of that demand and offer robust STEM learning for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
"It's hard for us to get hundreds of requests and only have one mobile lab to serve the entire state," she said. "So we're very excited to be building a Texas-sized program for this big state of ours. And with the new program, we'll be able to see almost 300 schools every year."
Learning Undefeated offers 16 different activities on the mobile STEM labs, incorporating math, reading, engineering and scientific methods into the lessons. The various lessons cater to different age groups, Pelletier said, such as kindergarteners learning about how to build a better house to withstand hurricane-level winds from none other than the "Three Little Pigs."
"Students are challenged with problems, so they design something, they build it, test it, try again and then ultimately come to a solution," she said.
While Learning Undefeated serves at least one school campus in each of Texas' educational regions, Pelletier said the organization does laser in on rural communities that might not have the same field trip opportunities or hands-on learning access that more urban areas do.
Right now, two additional mobile labs are being manufactured.
"It's sort of like building the shell of a bus or a camper," she said. "They build the outside first, and then it gets all of its wiring and all of the bells and whistles."
Those two labs are projected to roll out in January, with a complete nine-lab fleet expected to be operational by August 2025. From there, Pelletier said they'll operate regionally to maximize the time spent on school campuses and minimize time spent on traveling across the state.
That time spent in classrooms is critical, she added, noting reaching students at an early age can instill in them not only the skillset needed to thrive in the STEM-based fields but also the curiosity, perseverance, grit and resilience to serve them in life.
"By reaching these students at an early age, they will develop the confidence that they need to understand that there is a place in science, technology, engineering and math for them," Pelletier said. "So whether or not these students choose a STEM career, and hopefully they will, but even if they don't, we're hoping that we're developing humans with the capacity to be innovative and to be creative and resilient to help move us forward into the many years to come and invent amazing new things."
Learning Undefeated outlines resources online for Texas teachers interested in requesting a mobile STEM lab visit. More details on the organization are available online.