Drop Anywhere Labs provide flexible mobile classroom and laboratory space for middle schools. The immersive learning environment provides authentic, real-world learning co-developed with teachers and STEM industry subject matter experts to introduce students to high-paying, high-demand careers while building teacher capacity in STEM. The program offers students game-based and hands on experiential learning without leaving the school parking lot. The program offers educators access to research-grade equipment and technology for their classrooms, one on one professional development, and in-class assistance to build teacher capacity and confidence with advanced equipment and techniques.

The two-part Drop Anywhere Lab student experience uses game-based learning to explore chemical and physical changes, and continues in the classroom with extension activities that allow students to continue exploring the topic and related content through hands-on laboratory investigations. This program is composed of two parts:

1. An onboard student game experience
2. Classroom resources and curriculum for teacher use

Learning Undefeated’s onboard Chemical & Physical Changes Experience* takes place inside the shipping container and uses immersive reality, light, sound, touchscreen walls, and interactive gameplay to build understanding of chemistry concepts. Through interactive game play and team collaboration, students will view and collect information about a reaction. As a group, students make claims and use evidence to form arguments as to whether a presented reaction was physical or chemical. The experience uses projection mapping and interactive screens to provide students with an immersive game experience.

Onboard Game Experience Specifications

• Student Capacity: up to 10 participants (may be fewer depending on health restrictions at the time)
• Grade Levels: 6 – 8
• Experience Runtime: 20 min
• Average length of visit: one week per school
• Led by Learning Undefeated educators

*Additional experiences currently in development by Learning Undefeated include an Immersive Escape Room Experience applying the practices of science and engineering.

The onboard experience is accompanied by a micro mobile lab that is deployed inside the school to support grades 6-8 classroom instruction led by the teacher. These activities provide authentic, real-world learning co-developed with teachers and STEM industry subject matter experts.

The In-classroom program is accompanied by research-grade equipment and technology via mobile micro labs that travel into the classroom and remain there for the teachers to use while the Drop Anywhere Lab is in the parking lot. One-on-one professional development and in-class assistance are provided to build teacher capacity and confidence with advanced equipment and techniques.

In Classroom Experience Specifications

• Student Capacity: 40
• Grade levels: 6 – 8
• Activity Runtime : 45-60 min
• Led by classroom teachers, following professional development from Learning Undefeated’s educators

Available Curriculum:

1. Chemical Science: Students are introduced to chemical and physical changes and the common evidence seen for both.
2. What’s in a Change? Students compare combinations of materials and gather data to conclude whether they are chemical or physical changes. In part one, students collect data about the physical and chemical properties of reactants and products in the interaction of dry ice with water. In part two, students collect data about the physical and chemical properties of reactants and products in the interaction of calcium carbonate with vinegar. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-PS1-2)
3. Mixing Things Up: Students investigate the combination of water and a powdered drink. Students attempt to separate the materials and use density data to provide evidence that the combination is a solution, a physical change. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-PS1-2)
4. Wait, Weight? Students investigate the Law of Conservation of Mass for both physical and chemical reactions using multiple color change reactions. Students are also introduced to reversible chemical reactions. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-PS1-5)
5. Earth Science: Students investigate how water changes the landforms we see on Earth.
6. Augmented Reality Sandbox: Students will use individual stream tables in addition to an AR topography box to predict water movement over landforms and to view the effects of water on land (ie, erosion, sedimentation). It also provides an opportunity for students to compare models and to identify how scientists and engineers choose which models to use in their work. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-ES2-2)
7. Life Science: Students will learn about what it is like to live with diabetes and will investigate the body systems impacted by the disorder.
8. Where Did the Sugar Go? This activity includes 3 student stations: meal prepping, monitoring, and motion. At the meal prepping station, students are challenges to plan a meal that fits the carbohydrate constraints of a diabetic patient. At the monitoring station, students use a glucometer to test simulated patient blood samples taken before and after eating a meal. At the motion station, students use glucose test strips to test simulated patient plasma samples taken before and after exercising. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-LS1-3, NGSS-MS-LS1-7)
9. Physical Science: Students will investigate Newton’s laws through the lens of concussions and helmet design.
10. It’s All in Your Head: Students will use a physical model to investigate the effect of low and high impact forces on the human head. Students will use force plates to test different materials for their ability to reduce impact forces and ultimately inform students’ decision on which materials to include in a new helmet design. (Related Standards: NGSS-MS-PS2-1)