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Students at Gililland Elementary School recently stepped into a classroom on wheels—and into a new kind of learning experience.

Through a partnership with Learning Undefeated, Eagle Mountain–Saginaw ISD welcomed the Texas Mobile STEM Laboratory to campus, giving kindergarten through fifth grade students a chance to explore science, technology, engineering, math and fun.

“Bringing the Texas Mobile STEM Laboratory to the students of Eagle Mountain–Saginaw ISD is important because it expands access to TEKS based high-quality, hands-on STEM learning while directly supporting district and state instructional goals,” said Monica Padilla, Coordinator of Elementary Science Gifted and Talented for EMS ISD.

Learning Undefeated operates the mobile labs in partnership with the Texas Education Agency, which provides grant funding to support the program. The organization supplies trained staff, lab materials, and curriculum—making it easier for schools to host high-quality STEM experiences without added burden on campus resources.

“We're here in our mobile STEM lab at Gililland Elementary, and we're providing awesome hands-on STEM education to students from kindergarten to fifth grade,” said Oliver McSweeney of Learning Undefeated. “We’ve just expanded to have nine mobile labs… now we visit 270 schools a year. And so you have one of your schools, one of the lucky 270 picks, this year.”

Building, Budgeting, and a Big Bad “Test”

Inside the lab, students tackled design challenges that blended literacy, math, and engineering—especially a popular activity inspired by a familiar story.

“Three Little Pigs is one of my favorite curriculums that we have here,” McSweeney shared. “For all of our kinder through second grade curriculum, we have a little storybook… to bring in some English literacy into it. But then our students have to make a house for the little pig, using a budget of tokens… and then they have to budget that to buy materials, to build their house—which we actually try to blow down.”

The lesson goes beyond fun: students practice planning, problem-solving, and decision-making, while using simple, affordable materials teachers can replicate back in the classroom.

Engagement That Lasts

For teachers, the impact was immediate—students were energized, curious, and deeply involved in the learning process.

“My students were significantly engaged,” said Katterine Rojas, 2nd Grade Bilingual Teacher at Gililland Elementary. “This experience promoted critical thinking during their conversations and boosted their creativity when solving a task. This was an experience that will remain in their minds forever.”

"This experience has given the students of GES the knowledge that they can have a career in stem. They are already engineers, Learning Undefeated showed them that they are  problem solvers when completing the challenge in the lab", adds Angela Barrientos
Bilingual PACE teacher at Gililland and Willow Creek Elementary.
GES, WCES 

As the Texas Mobile STEM Laboratory continues its route across the state, EMS ISD students are gaining meaningful opportunities to explore STEM in a way that’s memorable, accessible, and connected to what they’re learning every day—one challenge, one question, and one creative solution at a time.