Around the country, mobile student science labs — built in buses, shipping containers, and trailers — are pulling up on school parking lots, enticing students to become more excited about studying science, technology, engineering, and math.
“Instead of science class in the classroom that day, we invite students to come out to this tractor trailer we have and study how to modify genes in plants or learn about chemistry or careers in STEM,” said Jennifer Colvin, chief innovation officer with Learning Undefeated, who has been developing mobile labs since 2003. Her company is working in 12 states with seven mobile labs and nine more under construction.
Mobile labs can be a great way to help STEM-oriented students prepare to enter the workforce as well as to reach students who don’t really know what they’re interested in yet, Colvin said. The labs provide an opportunity to boost traditional classroom coursework, giving students and teachers a break from the same experiences every day. They also provide a way to reach rural communities, where going on field trips may be harder. “By engaging students in authentic experiences, we may open their eyes to new career pathways they hadn’t previously considered,” she said.
The labs also offer students a chance to be taught by people who look like them, Colvin said. Whenever possible she hires instructors from local communities. “I want to support teachers (with activities) that maybe students haven’t seen yet and offer role models that students can identify with.”
Learning Undefeated’s labs offer two types of experiences — hands-on investigations and immersive learning. In a hands-on lab, students might learn about lactose intolerance, for example. “We’ll talk about what that means — that the body can’t break down complex sugars,” Colvin said. They’re taught that certain enzymes can do the job, but only if the pH level in a person’s stomach is right. “PH is really volatile in the stomach,” she said. “So, we’ll work in the lab to develop the perfect pH for that enzyme to work.”
In an immersive learning lab, students are surrounded by projections on the walls and augmented reality, somewhat like a video game experience. “We’ll have eight to 12 students in a little room, almost like an escape room, and they work collectively to solve a problem,” Colvin explained. One such experience in Texas involved figuring out how to retrofit a wharf, analyzing how port construction could impact the local environment and community with light pollution and dust, and determining how to avoid harming a protected species of turtle. “Those are things they get really excited about,” she said.
Although the learning takes place in enclosed spaces, Colvin said, teachers are made aware of the environment before anyone enters. Students with claustrophobia or any sensitivities to light and sound are forewarned and shown where the exits are. “If there is any heightened sensitivity, we turn down the volume or change the lighting,” Colvin said.
One particularly popular lab, the Explorer Lab, is a bus that “goes to Mars.” Students travel through the solar system in a 360-degree video experience and then use a custom-built tablet game to explore concepts of engineering design.
After attending mobile labs, students often have an increased interest in finishing high school, going to college, and working on teams, Colvin said. “They consistently show higher self-efficacy and the ability to complete the tasks necessary to make career decisions.”
Colvin said one of the reasons her labs have been so successful is that she engages with multiple partners through a network of dozens of other educators who use mobile labs, called the Mobile Laboratory Coalition.
“In my mind, there’s no such thing as STEM competition,” said Colvin. “There are audiences everywhere that need to be served. We work closely with companion programs all across the U.S. We share curriculum resources, tips, and tricks.”
One partner in the Mobile Laboratory Coalition is the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, which has one mobile lab and is building a second, according to Amanda Jones, Ph.D., senior director of education initiatives. Their labs focus on elementary school children. The program was started to find ways to provide better access to hands-on science in schools that didn’t have those kinds of resources and to reach rural locations, Dr. Jones said. Her labs are staffed with postdoctoral scientists and use research-grade equipment. “That’s just not possible in a classroom; they won’t have that kind of equipment,” Dr. Jones said. “To have a Ph.D.-level scientist talk about their experiences and what their day-to-day work looks like, to share that with students” is a particularly effective experience, she said.
The institute’s labs focus on experiments in chemistry, biology, and neuroscience because they are associated with a children’s hospital, Dr. Jones said. Her program includes characters — like “Dr. Gene Splicer” — to lead kids through experiments and, in Dr. Gene Splicer’s case, to talk about the fact that DNA contains the instructions for “building us.”
Colvin said the mobile labs create different pathways for precollege students to enter STEM. “It’s not a pipeline; it’s a pathway,” she said. “There are lots of different on-ramps; they can meander and change, and that’s OK. They can be very unique.”
For Colvin, the most rewarding aspect of the mobile labs is that she has seen many students sign up for an emerging leader program after attending the labs and their associated after-school programs. After training for six months, students become interns, and some have even gone on to work for Learning Undefeated.
“I feel like our success is because of all of those other programs working together,” said Colvin. “I’m proud of what we’ve done, but we are still seeking collaborations with like-minded organizations and communities.” She invites teachers who haven’t heard about their labs and coalition to visit their websites for more information.
