The Explorer Lab
Powered by Learning Undefeated
Imagine whizzing across the universe without leaving the parking lot! Our Explorer Lab is just that: a space-themed STEM learning experience unlike anything else your students have ever experienced. Skip across the solar system and visit all the planets (oh hey, Pluto!) before landing on Mars to build and navigate your own Mars rover. This one-of-a-kind vehicle runs our Mission Stardust game-based learning environment.
This shared immersive learning experience that combines movie-quality video, special effects, and hands-on educational gaming to create a learning environment that gets kids excited about space and science – right in the school parking lot.
The Explorer Lab program brings engineering to life against the mysterious backdrop of space’s next frontier: Mars. Combining classroom activities with a virtual trip to Mars, students navigate the engineering design process as they solve real world problems and explore the diversity of engineering careers.
Our classroom curriculum centers around forces and motion. The Roving on Mars curriculum includes two activities, Discovering Friction and Rolling Rovers. Curriculum aligns with many local, state and national science and engineering standards, including the Next Generation Science Standards.
FAST FACTS
Fun Facts About Learning Undefeated’s Explorer Lab:
- This 45-foot MCI motor coach bus seats 20 students each with their own tablet!
- In addition to visiting Mars every 45 minutes, this lab has travelled nationally… even going to the Super Bowl!
- Tech & sound: This lab features 16 monitors, Hollywood-style special effects, custom musical score and surround sound.
- Does Mars look just a little bit familiar? Some of our video and game graphics were created the same digital artists who created Star Wars elements!
- Secret life: Previously known as a Las Vegas airport shuttle!
Twenty screens on both passenger and driver sides create a wraparound scenic effect, immersing students in the geography and terrain of the Red Planet.
Every inch of this vehicle is custom, from the space-age steering wheel to the sound and lighting effects that make this bus one of a kind!
Upon landing on Mars, students design their own rover to navigate across the surface, choosing treads versus tires, battery source, and data collection instrumentation.
Exterior artwork on this vehicle features astrologically correct photographs of Earth and Mars (a little smaller than life-sized, though).
The all-white fiberglass interior transports students to another world! “It looks like Star Wars in here,” we always hear!
The Mission Stardust unity game environment allows students to compete and collaborate on their own tablets, but also work together as a class to compare and share data.
Hollywood-style lighting and sound add to the immersive experience, with a custom musical score and digital graphics designed by San Fransisco-based design firm IDEO.
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Mission Stardust
Onboard the Explorer Lab, students travel across the universe and land on the surface of Mars in a multi-sensory, 360-degree video and special effects experience. Onboard the red planet, students use a custom-built video game to create their own Mars rover and pilot it across the surface of Mars. During gameplay, which is based on the engineering design process, students learn to think like engineers by overcoming challenges and changing out equipment while making tradeoffs for cost, power, and battery life.
What type of Learning Happens Onboard?
- Engineering and design: Students experience the engineering and design process that factors in tradeoffs and consideration for environmental factors and constraints.
- STEM careers: Students experience relevant and in-context STEM missions that ignite curiosity and interest in STEM careers.
- Space and scientific practices: Students experience scientific practices (such as analyzing evidence, planning investigations, and collaborating) through the context of space-related content.
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