Officials from national education nonprofit Learning Undefeated and the Texas Education Agency celebrated the opening of eight new mobile STEM labs at a Sept. 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony in Austin. The TEA-funded labs are expected to visit 270 school districts across the state in the 2025-26 school year.
“In an ever-changing world, access to STEM education remains critical to help prepare our students for career pathways and lifelong success,” said Alejando Delgado, deputy commissioner of operations for the TEA.
The overview
Learning Undefeated built eight new mobile STEM labs after receiving a $3.5 million grant from the TEA, according to Learning Undefeated information. The organization opened its first mobile STEM lab in Texas in 2020.
The nine regionally-based labs will now visit elementary and middle school campuses across the state’s 20 educational service center regions, said Joe Wilkerson, vice president of Texas strategy and program operations for Learning Undefeated.
Kindergarten through eighth grade students may participate in a variety of hands-on STEM activities to learn engineering design, which teaches students skills like critical thinking and problem solving, said Desurae Matthews, senior education program manager for Learning Undefeated. The 50-foot, 600-square-foot trailers visit campuses for a few days on average and can accommodate around 30 students at a time.
The labs provide training and professional development for teachers on how to replicate STEM activities in their classrooms, Matthews said. Teachers can access lessons for the activities on the organization’s website.
“The message that we want to convey to our educators is that you don't need all the fancy equipment,” Matthews said. “You can do STEM with just the smallest things.”
Why it matters
Last school year, Learning Undefeated received requests from over 1,000 schools to come visit their campus, Wilkerson said.
Additional funding from the Texas Legislature has allowed Learning Undefeated to expand from visiting 30 campuses to 270 school districts per school year, he said. The eight new mobile labs visited around 1,700 students in one week, which would have previously taken the organization about two months, Matthews said.
“There are some barriers to getting on [a] field trip for students,” Wilkerson said. “By bringing the experience to the parking lot, we're bringing down those barriers, creating interest and awareness around careers.”
The labs prepare students to enter the future workforce by highlighting engineering career paths, Learning Undefeated officials said.
“We want to make sure that these students know that these are actual jobs that they can see themselves in within the workplace,” Matthews said.
Stay tuned
Campuses can request a mobile STEM lab to visit their school during the application period from April to May each year, Wilkerson said.
The mobile STEM labs will visit the following school districts in Community Impact’s coverage area this school year:
