STEAM WonderLab offers opportunities for children to explore, well, STEAM! STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
WonderLab is based off of a 21st-century model for university lab schools, where undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students work alongside faculty to co-construct and implement authentic, engaging, hands-on STEAM activities for children in grades K-12.
Our core program is our WonderLab after-school for children in grades 1-6, but we offer diverse programming from middle school math exploration in Math Circle to summer camp programs.
Our Mission
Our primary goal is to help students to make a place for themselves in STEAM. We want all WonderLab students to be confident and curious in nature, be brave in experimentation, strengthen communication skills, and have access to STEM pipeline.
In light of our new “stay at home” world, we have a round-up of some of our favorite hands-on, supply-easy STEAM activities and exploration exercises. Activities include chemistry experiments, the mathematics of cooking, art projects, nature exploration, music exercises, collaborative citizen scientist projects, and more.
Our native bees, butterflies, and other insects are in big trouble right now, but there is so much that we in urban areas can do to protect them! Join Lesley University insect ecologist Amy Mertl for an overview of our local native pollinators the many ways we can support and protect them.
The sun is out, and we are excited to get outside. We have a number of outdoor activities for you this week, including garden exploration, nature crafts, and orange-peel bird-feeders.
In this week’s STEAM at home, we have a boat-making challenge, mud pies, rain-sticks and more.
WonderLab students have taken on many challenging and rewarding projects. Over the past four years, we have cooked amazing dinners, built and learned how to play Taiko drums, created critter houses out of natural materials, and so much more. Click here to check out some of our students’ work!
Lesley faculty Dr. Susan Rauchwerk, Dr. Amy Mertl, and Dr. Nicole Weber started the program in Fall 2016. WonderLab was created to promote STEAM opportunities and more collaborative approaches to education for K12 classrooms and for teachers-in-training at Lesley University. WonderLab supports its students, partnering schools, Lesley University classrooms, and the STEAM community at large through its various programs.
WonderLab prides itself as an asset to the Lesley University community. Through WonderLab, Lesley students and classes gain access to class observations, student fieldwork, research opportunities, professional development workshops, employment and internship opportunities, and more.
Even though WonderLab programs maintain small group sizes, we have seen a significant number of grade school students who have enrolled in more than one of our programs in our four short years. They just keep coming back!
Through after school programs, vacation camps, community partnerships and Lesley University collaboration, WonderLab has supported a variety of learning experiences.
STEAM WonderLab regularly offers a variety of programs for elementary and middle school students. Our primary program is the WonderLab after-school for elementary school children. We also offer vacation camps during Cambridge Public School vacation weeks and over the summer, as well as STEM programming for middle school students.
WonderLab is a program for children in grades 1-6 that takes place at Lesley University. WonderLab is an opportunity for students to engage in authentic, hands-on STEAM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), explore nature, tackle engineering challenges, and conduct science experiments.
Students have the opportunity to sign up for a few more weeks of WonderLab after the spring semester ends in early May.
Can’t get enough of WonderLab? We run special week-long programs based on student-generated themes and interests.
Math Circle is program for girls in grades 6-8. Students will take on math-based games and challenges while discovering patterns, learning math-based strategies, and discovering why math works and not just the procedure to solve a problem. Led by Dr. Kate Hendrix, who teaches mathematics at Lesley University.
WonderLab is teaming up with the Cambridge Environmental Literacy Project to offer ecological STEAM-based field trips to an early start preschool and several kindergarten classrooms at local greenspaces and Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Lesley students will provide hands-on investigations such as macroinvertebrate sampling and pollinator monitoring that will engage students in authentic research-based experiences that supports Mt. Auburn citizen science projects.
Lesley student teaching in WonderLab
