Video
“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.”
Career readiness starts with early engagement.
Students begin forming ideas about their abilities and interests at an early age. Explorer leverages this window by introducing STEM through career-connected challenges and real-world problem solving. These hands-on learning experiences allow students to see themselves as capable creators and contributors. It’s more than exposure—it’s identity-building. In this video, see how one district uses Explorer to spark big futures—starting in elementary school.
See how Greeley-Evans School District 6 uses SmartLab to spark early engagement and future-ready mindsets.
The SMART Friends help every learner
see themselves in STEM.
Students begin forming ideas about their abilities and interests at an early age. Explorer leverages this window by introducing STEM through career-connected challenges and real-world problem solving. These hands-on learning experiences allow students to see themselves as capable creators and contributors. It’s more than exposure—it’s identity-building. In this video, see how one district uses Explorer to spark big futures—starting in elementary school.
Meet the SMART Friends:
Explorer Unit Spotlight: Harvest Hauler
Each unit connects STEM concepts to real-world challenges.
Explorer includes structured, grade appropriate units and equipment, each focused on an industry-aligned challenge.
These units support standards-aligned instruction across diverse K–5 settings and blend foundational STEM skills with guided inquiry—such as designing efficient food systems or exploring sustainable community development. SMART Challenges offer open-ended options that extend learning through student voice and personal interest.
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:
What Do Students
Actually Do?
Explorer units are built around three types of SMART Challenges, each supporting a different stage of student growth. The structure begins with confidence-building activities, then moves into inquiry, and ends with original invention. This approach gives students a clear pathway for building skills, applying them in context, and taking full ownership of their ideas:
- Skill Builder: Build confidence with essential tools and concepts. Students start with hands-on activities that introduce key ideas and technologies.
- Investigation: Explore real-world questions with curiosity and care. Students apply new tools to investigate open-ended problems grounded in authentic scenarios.
- Invention: Create original solutions that show what they’ve learned. Students design, prototype, and share their own creations, taking full ownership of their ideas.
See how students build on these challenge types in real-world contexts
Explorer SMART Challenge types:
Skill Builder, Investigation, Invention
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
“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.”
“By moving beyond textbooks and theory, investing in SmartLab HQs technology gives students a chance to succeed in an ever-changing, fast-moving environment while fostering essential skills such as communication, flexibility, creativity, and collaboration. We’re equipping students with the tools, resources, and confidence to adapt to new technologies and ideas that push the world forward.”
“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.
