Urban Promise Academy unveils grant-funded STEM lab for middle schoolers

Polet Espinoza’s favorite memory of her East Oakland school’s new STEM lab was creating her own version of the mobile video game “Flappy Bird.” 

The 12-year-old placed individual pixels to form images, transforming obstacles in the game from green pipes into snow-covered trees, and adding mountains and vines to the background. The game’s iconic yellow bird became a white duck with three eyes.

“I learned how to do pixel art and learned how color theory works,” Polet said. “It was pretty fun. I’d say all the people who tested my game, they definitely enjoyed it.”

This is one of many projects students at Urban Promise Academy Middle School can participate in, thanks to a new SmartLab, a science and technology space promoting project-based learning. The lab contains 3-D printers, computers loaded with movie-making and app-creating programs, and reusable STEM kits with motherboards and wires.

UPA paid for the lab with a $179,000 grant it received in April from the Campos Foundation, a nonprofit that has worked with the company behind SmartLab to implement 16 free labs across the country. The foundation prioritizes schools with a high percentage of low-income students, like UPA, where 97% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. 

Principal Tierre Mesa, said UPA has learned how to be creative when it comes to STEM learning opportunities for kids. She recalled taking 25 kids on a field trip to NASA when she was a science teacher years ago. UPA’s current eighth-grade math teacher was on that trip.

“He said that field trip changed the whole trajectory of what he felt was possible for him, and he ended up being a math major,” she said. “So I don’t think we can overestimate the impact that these experiences can have on kids.”

UPA used the grant money to convert a large trailer, which the school had planned to use as a computer lab, into the SmartLab. It has been in use since August, and UPA cut the ribbon for its official unveiling Tuesday.

The design of the space had been a surprise to Reina Cabezas, UPA’s SmartLab teacher, who noted that teachers and students were not consulted in the implementation process.

“I imagined that it would be a project lab where students could choose projects like a book from the library: They could explore it then decide if they were into it or put it back and find one they enjoyed,” she said in an email. “I asked if there was a Lab close to us so I could see it in action, but that never happened.”

The lack of consultation was confusing, Cabezas said, because SmartLab’s training materials stressed the importance of learning from and about the community it was designing solutions for. She relied on 17 years of teaching in project-based learning environments to get her bearings in the new space. 

“While we’re lucky to have a Lab now, I would’ve really appreciated being a partner in the ‘design’ of this learning environment itself,” she said. 

Phaven Berhe, who works with SmartLabs to help schools in Northern California secure lab funding, confirmed that only administrators at UPA were consulted. But she said that SmartLab staff customize “STEM solutions” based on what administrators say are the school’s needs.

Students like Polet and her 12-year-old classmate Itcel Barron Hernandez said they were satisfied with the result so far. 

Itcel has been using the SmartLab to work on a math-based project called “Frames,” which required her to quickly solve problems to move an animated character. She said it was hard, and sometimes she wanted to give up, but she persevered.

“It felt difficult to me at first,” Itcel said. “But in the end, I did understand it.”

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