AT&T Volunteers Build Outdoor STEM Learning Lab at Miami School

More than 50 AT&T volunteers got down and dirty for a good cause. They built an outdoor STEM learning lab at Beacon College Prep in Opa-Locka in a single day!

The “Big Dig” was part of the AT&T Believe Miami initiative focused on removing barriers that keep local youth and young adults from achieving their dreams.

Out Teach hosted the event.
The nonprofit trains teachers how to use outdoor experiential learning
to boost academics. The door to a great STEM career closes early, so Out
Teach partners with innovative schools to ensure students get the early exciting, engaging, and enriching science education they deserve.

The Beacon College Prep project began with students, parents and
teachers drawing out the different features they wanted in their outdoor
learning lab. Then, the Out Teach team created the final design and
volunteer building plan based on the school community’s vision.

AT&T volunteers started building the outdoor learning lab at 9 in the morning and were finished 6 hours later.
The outdoor learning space has dozens of features that enhance instruction and give students hands-on lessons in every subject. It includes:

• an outdoor classroom with benches and white board.
• a math path with a place-value counter, a primary balance, an abacus and equation prompts painted on a new concrete walkway.
• a decomposition station.
• a weather station.
• an earth science exploration station.
• a calming mindfulness walk area with a little library.
• animal and insect habitats, including bird house.
• pollinator and vegetable gardens

In addition to providing the volunteers to build the outdoor STEM learning lab, AT&T helped fund the project. The Beacon College Prep learning lab was AT&T’s sixth project with Out Teach, and is also the first Out Teach lab in Florida.