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Student engagement is at levels I have never seen in my 23 years of teaching. Students love the lab and are constantly asking if they can come down in their free time to continue working with Ukits, or Engino, etc. I’ve never been busier as a teacher, but also have never had more fun. It’s encouraged me to gladly take work home and get more proficient in areas such as coding and circuitry. I see myself as a lifelong learner, and this lab not only meets the needs of my students but also fulfills my own growth as a facilitator and person. I appreciate my administration for investing in this lab and appreciate SmartLab for offering such an incredible product!!!
Career-Connected
PBL Curriculum
Engaging challenges bridge learning to careers.
Every SmartLab project centers on a challenge that connects an Integrated STEM Application to a Career and Industry Pathway. From the start, students connect skills to real-world applications, making learning engaging and memorable. They take on authentic, hands-on projects by designing solutions, testing ideas, and refining their work while they build skills for high school, future careers, and beyond.
Each unit:
• Integrates STEM applications like robotics, data analysis, and media
• Presents a real-world challenge with a clear career connection
• Adds extension challenges to apply skills in new scenarios
• Requires iteration, reflection, and communication
This approach builds both competence and STEM identity, helping students see themselves as problem solvers and creators with agency in a technological world.
“…They just go places we never imagined.”
A STEM Curriculum That Grows With Students
From their first experiences, students are introduced to STEM concepts and careers through hands-on challenges. These challenges move them along a path of career affinity:
- Awareness – exposure to a wide range of STEM fields and roles
- Engagement – deeper exploration through authentic, hands-on challenges
- Affinity – identifying interests and strengths that align with future opportunities
Each SmartLab program provides age-appropriate tools, technologies, and open-ended problems that grow in complexity. Skills build over time, preparing students for increasingly sophisticated thinking, collaboration, and creation.
This growth is no accident. It’s supported by a consistent design process that shapes both the curriculum and the student experience, ensuring that each challenge builds on the last.
Explorer introduces STEM tools through flexible, interdisciplinary challenges that connect classroom learning to the world around them. A unit might ask students to design an accessible playground, test wind-powered vehicles, or engineer water filters.
Pathfinder prepares students for CTE pathways by deepening their technical fluency, problem-solving skills, and career awareness. Students explore urban planning, biomedical engineering, or smart agriculture—building both expertise and purpose.
Spark invites students to follow their curiosity while building foundational fluency with STEM tools, systems, and ideas. A student might prototype a musical instrument, design a simple machine, or model a water cycle with coding tools.
How the SmartLab Design Process Fuels Innovation
The SmartLab Design Process empowers students to tackle challenges with creativity and purpose.
This iterative framework guides learners through critical steps—like brainstorming, prototyping, testing, and refining—to tackle challenges such as programming a self-driving produce truck, designing a mobile learning app, or conducting an energy audit for a home or school. By emphasizing exploration and reflection, the process helps students develop resilience and adaptability while honing essential skills like critical thinking and collaboration.
What career-connected learning looks like
SmartLab students bring STEM applications to life through meaningful, hands-on projects. These examples show how learners use real tools and technologies to explore and solve challenges:
Grounded in standards. Designed for flexibility.
SmartLab curriculum is aligned to national and state academic standards—including Common Core, NGSS, ISTE, and CSTA—while also supporting local priorities like CTE. Every project starts with student engagement—hands-on, relevant, and active—while staying aligned to clear academic objectives. Teachers get the flexibility to adapt instruction as needed, while students benefit from a clear, consistent structure that encourages exploration and accountability.
Success in Action
Districts across the country use SmartLab to strengthen engagement, improve performance, and empower students.
Explore how different communities are making it work.
What Educators Say
“SmartLab Learning’s turnkey solutions allowed us to move quickly to implement a district-wide STEM program…the SmartLab Learning solutions plus the professional development allowed our students to be actively engaged in project-based learning immediately.”
“We are able to work with our students to get them career and college ready, and we do that K-12. SmartLabs help by getting students’ hands on projects and activities, getting them working with partners in the classroom, and getting them building something they would’ve never have imagined they could build…it’s actually shown our community what our students are capable of.”
“In our SmartLab, students become empowered and engaged as they use critical thinking, curiosity, and collaboration to apply content standards. I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t love this class or
benefit from this connected approach to learning.”
Ready to transform learning in your school?
Together, we’ll bring the SmartLab ecosystem to your school. Students will engage deeply in STEM, take on real-world challenges, and build the skills for lifelong learning, leadership, and career readiness.
