EVANS, Colo. — From the minute you walk into the SmartLab at Heiman Elementary School, you can tell it’s not like any other class. Students are talking excitedly at their stations, playing music and video games, even drawing on the tables. Granted, they are white board tables.
Heimen Elementary is one of the first 17 schools in Greeley-Evans School District 6 to get a SmartLab. It’s a high-tech maker space where students rotate through different stations to learn about coding, robotics, electricity and more.
Teacher and SmartLab facilitator Gerrek Zwickle said the stations can be tailored to grade level, skill level and even translated into different languages.
“The goal by the end of this summer is to have a SmartLab with every one of our elementary schools and middle schools,” Zwickle said.
The SmartLabs are built locally by Creative Learning Systems in Longmont. They’re in schools across the country, but Greeley-Evans D6 has more than any district nationwide. The district saw SmartLabs as a critical investment in preparing students for high school and post-secondary education.
“They’re exploring circuits. They might want to be an electrician. They're doing some software programming. They might want to be a software engineer. Maybe they'll think about architecture or building,” Zwickle said.
