Our Philosophy

The Great Adventure Lab wants to bring LEGO® robotics and other fun, educational science programs to more elementary school students at a younger age. Our goal is to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics irresistibly FUN for the next generation.

Our students leave our LEGO® Robotics and other science classes wanting more. We want our students – boys and girls – to enter middle and high school actually wanting to sign up for that class in robotics, or physics, or electronics.

Are we succeeding? Yes! Since The Great Adventure Lab started up in fall 2010 with just nine classes taking the same LEGO® robotics classes at three schools, we’ve expanded to more than 60 classes a week at two dozen schools. All told, we’ve taught more than 3,000 students to write their first programs. Students and parents think we’re doing an awesome job.

My son G. adored this after school program.  I have never seen him more excited about anything before.  He loves LEGOs and now, loves programming robots.  This is a brilliant program and we will definitely be interested in anything else you have to offer. Thank you! -Woodlin E.S. parent

Check out our class list and class reviews. And while you’re at it, check our LEGO® robotics and other birthday parties and party reviews! No, we won’t turn your kid into Einstein. But we’ll certainly spark his or her interest in science, robotics and engineering!

As parents, you have choices for after-school robotics and science programs.

Why choose The Great Adventure Lab?

Because, unlike our competitors, we offer:

• Hand-on activities for every kid, every time. Our classes are not demonstration classes where just one or two kids get to help. There’s no such thing as sitting through our classes and not being able to remember what happened. In our LEGO® Robotics classes, each pair of kids gets one netbook and one LEGO® robotics kit. In our video game programming classes, we bring a laptop for each student.

• Variety. In addition to three distinctly different robotics classes (beginning, Robo Challenge and Mindstorms), we also offer classes in video game programming, crime science, engineering, electronics and more.

• Small class sizes. Maximum enrollment for each class is 12* (or 10, for Mindstorms). Compare that to other activities, which pile up to 20 kids in a room with one frazzled college student. (*In some cases, your PTA may insist on adding a 13th child to the class – we do this at your PTA’s request with the understanding that your PTA has approval from the parents in the class).

• Two instructors for 12 students OR one instructor plus one aide = student-adult ratio of 6:1. Compare that to other providers, who often stuff 17+ kids into a class with one instructor.

• Sensible grade ranges. We are not a one-size-fits-all program. We are not going to tell you that students grades K-5 are going to have meaningful experiences in the same classroom at the same time. We restrict our classes to appropriate grade ranges, including K-1, 2-4, 2-5, 4-7 and 6-8.

• Qualified, enthusiastic instructors who are required to pass a background check before the start of each session. Many of us are engineers. Almost all The Great Adventure Lab instructors have bachelor’s or master’s degrees; one or two of us has a PhD.  About half of us have STEM degrees. Several of us have children of our own.

• Email updates from your instructor after every class about what your child did and learned, what to expect in the next class and when appropriate, how to extend the activity at home. Parents love our updates because many of them can’t pry three words out of their kids about what they did in school on any given day!

• Affordable tuition. Many of our competitors charge about $20 per student per class hour for robotics classes at their venues. We bring talented instructors and thousands of dollars of equipment to your classroom for about as little as $13 per student per class hour.

• Convenient venues (your home school, or even your house if you form your own group! Homeschoolers welcome!).

• Community support. The Great Adventure Lab donates a percentage of tuition back to your PTA when your PTA organizes our after-school or evenings science clubs. We also run at-cost LEGO® robotics and other classes for low-income students at housing communities managed by Montgomery Housing Partnership in Montgomery County, Maryland.

• Support for girls. We love our boy students but we want to see more girls in our classes! That’s why we founded Girls Get Science, a series of evening events designed to get more girls fired up about robotics, video game programming and other STEM activities.

• We’re local! We’re not a chain or a franchise. We’re based in Wheaton, Maryland. Our founder and our instructors have deep roots in our communities! We’re creating fun, brain-challenging and well-paid part-time jobs for people in Maryland and beyond!

 

Isn’t it time to bring LEGO® Robotics and other fun STEM programs to your school? Invite us!