More than $2.45 Million Raised to Bring New Mobile STEM Labs to 300 Percent More Middle and High Schoolers in Maryland and Texas
Gaithersburg, MD – August 1, 2019 – Learning Undefeated, a nonprofit organization that provides life-changing STEM experiences for high needs communities, today debuted its latest concept in mobile STEM education: Drop Anywhere Labs. Learning Undefeated custom-designed these three STEM learning spaces from shipping containers and will deploy the new labs to middle and high schools in Maryland and Texas beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.
Smaller, lighter and less expensive
than brick-and-mortar or trailer labs, Drop Anywhere Labs offer a blend of
career and skills education. Each lab will support a variety of content themes,
from science and health to engineering and construction, offering an immersive,
hands-on learning environment that can serve up to four classes simultaneously.
“Drop Anywhere Labs provide
sophisticated laboratory equipment and resources, facilitating hands-on learning
that sparks interest in in-demand STEM jobs,” said Brian Gaines, CEO of
Learning Undefeated. “These new mobile labs serve as flexible laboratory and
classroom space that triples our current capacity, enabling us to serve more
than 80,000 students annually. Through our wide-ranging mobile lab program, we
can provide equitable access to technology, and a solution to help schools more
quickly regain normalcy following a natural disaster.”
More than $2.45 million was
contributed by AstraZeneca, the State of Maryland, Rebuild Texas Fund, the
Qatar Harvey Fund, the State of Texas, and Learning Undefeated’s newest
partner, Toyota USA Foundation.
“Drop Anywhere Labs provide the
opportunity to augment the classroom experience and expand access to STEM
learning opportunities,” said Michael Medalla, manager, Toyota USA Foundation.
“These labs help get students interested in STEM careers early and create the
innovators of tomorrow.”
Pioneering
Mobile STEM Education
Learning Undefeated is a pioneer in mobile
STEM education, operating the first multi-state mobile laboratory program in
the nation. The organization introduced the first mobile lab program for
Maryland high school students in 2003 with its MdBioLab,
and enhanced its offerings in 2017 with the newer, larger Mobile
eXploration Lab. To date, these mobile labs have
served more than 200,000 K-12 students – approximately 75 percent of those from
low-income school districts – across 18 states.
In 2016, Learning Undefeated expanded with a
grant to operate the Verizon
explorer lab, an engineering-focused
STEM education program for middle school students. Then in 2017, the Learning
Undefeated team saw an opportunity to take its MdBioLab to South Texas to help
Gulf coast schools that had been damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Harvey.
The organization’s Texas initiatives have served more than 15,000 students from
disaster-impacted communities in 27 schools across 12 school districts.
With the three
new Drop Anywhere Labs, Learning Undefeated will be able to serve an additional
60,000 students per year.
Speaking at the
ribbon cutting today, where Learning Undefeated showcased its entire fleet of
mobile labs, Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford said, “STEM education is
critical to powering our state’s economy in 2019 and well into the future.
Maryland leads the country in so many STEM disciplines including science,
health, IT and cybersecurity, and we are home to excellent, high-paying STEM
careers. Our students are second to none, and we hope these talented youth will
choose to stay, study and work here in Maryland, so that our state workforce
may continue to innovate and lead the country forward.”
