SAM Labs

1. SAM Labs' mission is to teach 500 million students high-demand STEM skills, knowledge, and behaviour. We are committed to increase the engagement of learners in remote, hybrid, and physical environments through STEAM & Coding activities while supporting teachers with tools, know-how and the mindset to reach learners’ potential for computational thinking.

2.SAM Labs reduces teachers’ workload with curriculum-aligned courses, with lessons and teachers materials available to use within Google Classroom and Nearpod.

SAM Labs increases teachers' confidence with online and live professional development to develop teachers 21st-century skills.

SAM Labs increases student engagement by linking each lesson to practical hands-on activity, with web-based interactive apps, and Bluetooth connected hardware blocks.

3. SAM Labs solutions incorporate the STEAM approach in education, which brings a whole host of benefits, such as developing students' problem-solving skills, increasing students' engagement, and increasing teachers' confidence. Research shows that these skills, knowledge, and behaviours lead to high skills, high-paying, jobs. 

By scaling globally SAM Labs’ solutions the quality of teaching STEAM & Coding will improve, schools and families with a lower budget will have access to STEAM & Coding resources, and the number of candidates being ready to start a career in STEAM/STEM-related positions will increase.

A 2015 Gallup poll, surveying close to a million students, found that 50 per cent of 5th through 12th graders reported being "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in school. Standardized testing, sitting quietly in class taking notes, and reciting facts from memory may have their place, but educators have begun to rally behind a new way of teaching that enables students to learn valuable skills. In another study conducted by Learning.com from 2012 to 2017, 75% of fifth and eighth-graders were found to be lacking in technology literacy. This identifies a critical issue for students who will be required to utilize more and more technology and skillsets in the working world. SAM Labs STEAM & Coding solutions push students to incorporate elements of technology, computer programming, and engineering into classwork and projects. SAM Labs provides engaging, hands-on experiences to help students build knowledge, computational thinking skills and understanding within the science, technology, engineering, art and math fields. Not only hardware allows students to build real-life projects and simulators, but also our lessons were adapted to the engaging format of interactive activities via the Nearpod platform, which allows students to actively participate in lessons even when teaching is happening remotely.

SAM Labs’ developed three K-9 courses since 2016: STEAM, Learn to Code, and Maker. The courses are a holistic mix of 300 standards-aligned instructional and planning resources that reduce teacher workload, teacher training and professional development courses that aim to increase educators confidence, coding apps (flow-based and coding application),  as well as wireless electronics that engage students by bringing the lessons to life.

Teachers can use SAM Labs to combine programming skills with the excitement of engaging students with hands-on learning while promoting STEAM concepts. Students can use maker space materials to create an animal or a machine, and then use the SAM Studio web-based app coding resources to bring it to life. Students learn about solar energy, force and motion, or renewable energy by creating different circuits to solve problems. Teachers can use SAM Labs’ Digital Classroom to run a lesson both in the classroom and in the remote learning environment. All K-8 STEAM and Coding lessons are presented through Nearpod,  which feature engagement activities every few slides to keep students' attention, as well as provide data for the teacher to export to help drive instruction.

Students Engagement in STEAM subjects

 The world around us is increasingly powered by science and technology. There’s plenty of data on the growth of STEM careers, and the need for qualified workers to fill these jobs. SAM Labs’ solution is designed for K-9 students & teachers as well as for children & educators from the makerspaces and after school STEAM & Coding programs. SAM Labs solution is designed for successful STEAM & Coding teaching & learning in remote, hybrid, and physical environments. 

Many students do not have access to engaging STEAM activities and their approach to science careers and subjects is stereotypical. 

Kings College London found that overwhelmingly, very many children see science careers as relevant simply to ‘brainy’ white men and other stereotypes. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/research/aspires/ASPIRES-final-report-December-2013.pdf 

Research funded by ESRC reported that science careers (excluding medicine) are not popular aspirations among 10-14-year-olds. By the age of 9 or 10, a significant proportion of pupils have already decided that the idea of studying science and technical subjects after the age of 16 and the idea of a career in a STEM area is ‘not for me’. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/research/aspires/TISME-briefing-paper-March-2013.pdf

This is why SAM Labs has chosen to combine Bluetooth-enabled hardware blocks with a unique visual programming app in order to model and experiment with a range of scientific concepts, skills and understanding.

In our STEAM Course kit, we offer a multidisciplinary approach to science instruction that has the fundamental learnings of computational thinking woven throughout.

Academic skills have been carefully considered in the compilation of the progression of lessons within and across grade levels.

Without the use of magnets, coupled with the absence of the need for students to be tethered to a physical work surface, creativity is unleashed. When our solution is paired with 3-D Printers, Laser Cutters and creations are only limited by the bounds of students’ imaginations,  unlocking an ecosystem to unharness students potential.

Thanks to SAM Labs solution students become more engaged in STEAM subjects and motivated to learn. Building their own simulators allows students to better understand complex problems and definitions, while coding aspects bring a logical (IF/AND/OR) thinking approach into their learning journey. Students’ perception of STEAM subjects changes for the better and the stereotypes are challenged. 

Support for Teachers

SAM Labs solution responds also to teachers & educators needs. Teachers who do not specialize in STEAM or Coding often do not have the knowledge or tools to implement STEAM activities in their classroom.

The Wellcome Trust’s 'young people's views on science tracker’ (2017) found that after ‘finding science interesting, the most important factors encouraging young people to learn science were ‘having a good teacher’ and ‘enjoying practical work’. In both cases, 35% of young people said this had encouraged them.

https://wellcome.ac.uk/sites/default/files/science-education-tracker-summary-feb17.pdf

Another challenge for teachers and educators is the amount of workload. A 2017 DfE survey of 1023 recent ex-teachers on the reasons they left the profession found that workload was by far the most significant factor, with 75% giving it as their main reason.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/682023/SFR86_2017_Main_Text.pdf 

SAM Labs curriculum & resources increase teachers confidence to instruct upon technical subjects and Reduce teachers workload effectively.  SAM Labs demonstrate that using its resources can support statutory requirements alongside engaging students in unique learning opportunities. SAM Labs lessons align to four major US curricula: TEKS, NGSS, CCSS (Math), CCSS (ELA) and CSTA. The structure of each lesson guides both teachers and students from theory into practice, facilitating and scaffolding learning by doing, and putting academic learning into a practical context. Additionally, all K-8 STEAM and Coding lessons are now presented through Nearpod,  which feature engagement activities every few slides to keep students' attention, as well as provide data for the teacher to export to help drive instruction. Each slide includes audio and/or video instruction from SAM Labs' certified educators, but remains editable in case teachers wish to embed their own audio files.  The lessons are 100% complete for educators to simply copy links and paste for their students to use, but can also be modified by the instructor if needed.  Students can work through the lessons at their own pace and have multiple opportunities to answer questions, build code and prototypes, and interact with the lesson. 

STEAM solution for Hybrid & Distance learning

The effect of Covid-19 on schools and the teaching system still has been significant and has not been mitigated. Students may find themselves needing to rotate between home and school through the next few months or longer. Teachers are struggling through this COVID transition and are still adapting to the new digital teaching and learning paradigm.  They are seeking out resources, tools and techniques to deliver the best learning experiences for their students.

SAM Labs transformed innovative classroom resources it has built over the past 6 years, used by 1 million students globally, into state-of-the-art resources for remote learning to be used during Covid-19. This project has been supported by positive research and market demand: 1,000 teachers, 500 students, 200 parents expressing interest to attend, and purchase exclusive remote learning SAM Labs training, webinars, and products since Covid19.

The STEAM & Coding distance learning is now easier than ever before thanks to the web-based app with virtual blocks (the kit with Bluetooth enabled blocks is no more obligatory to create STEAM projects), lessons and activities in Digital Classroom and new kits. 

SAM Labs' new kits are portable and flexible to facilitate remote learning when teachers and students find themselves needing to rotate between home and school throughout further COVID-19 restrictions. Each kit allows students to tinker and explore independently using common maker materials and standards-based activities.

• The STEAM at Home range - a low cost, hands-on 1-to-1 learning pack with a variety of materials to build and create prototypes without the need for computers or tablets. It is a back to basics educational tool designed for homes that can’t always rely on the internet to facilitate remote learning.

• The STEAM Course - Remote Learning Kit is a simple, at-home or in-school learning kit designed for schools or districts to ease the stress of challenging adjustments to the K-5 learning environment during the school term. Each kit comes with 15 portable trays that can be easily carried home - comes with a pre-designed lid per tray which becomes a STEAM lunch box.

Creator Coding Kit & Creator STEAM Kit - This at-home or in-classroom, mini-kit is an entry-level coding/steam kit ideal for schools or districts implementing coding into their technology plans for the first time. Each kit is designed to facilitate coding at home and fulfil the need for 1-1 learning tools during school closures. The addition of DC Motors and LEGO© technic compatible pieces makes this kit particularly engaging for students

Sam Labs offers a technology-based solution for primary and secondary students & teachers to successfully teach & learn STEAM & Coding. 

The solution is a holistic set of engaging, equitable, standards-aligned, remote-learning, STEAM and Coding digital courses, with an offline option. App integration with Google Classroom and Nearpod allows teachers to facilitate personalized instructions, assign tasks, check outcomes of projects that students were working to then use these further to enhance communications with students.

This addresses the need for equitable, affordable, and engaging resources to achieve state-mandated levels of Computer Science, Science, Maths, English, and Music in different learning environments.

SAM Labs’ products are present in many countries across the world (USA, Italy, Spain, China, Singapore, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, UK, UAE, Australia) serving around 5,000 schools globally.  SAM Labs’ 5-year main goal is to reach 500,000,000 students globally, of which 100,000,000 across the USA’s 114,000 schools with our affordable, flexible, and impactful curriculum - maximizing impact to increase STEAM career uptake for underprivileged students.

STEAM and Coding is already increasing in importance in early education year over year, but teaching these subjects over a distance brought new challenges. SAM Labs developed its content and software to directly respond to students & teachers needs. 

SAM Studio App developed to be browser-based vs desktop-based (previous version of SAM Labs’ software) means that teachers and educators do not have to worry about devices' technical requirements for the app to work. The browser-based SAM Space app is a special build that runs in a web browser. 

SAM Space has limited text, allowing all students, regardless of age, language spoken, reading level, or learning needs, to create and test a code when in the SAM Space app. The visual nature of the app is a huge advantage for students learning to code with our SAM Labs STEAM activities.

The key innovation in Sam Labs solution are wireless blocks in SAM Studio. Students learning at home have no or limited access to STEAM kits usually provided for classrooms. Virtual blocks are an amazing tool for teachers that haven’t received their blocks yet or are waiting for funding and still want their students to get a chance to dive into the coding challenges that accompany our STEAM activities and coding lessons. They are a perfect distance learning solution for students. 

Digital Classroom is a unique resource, housing the adapted STEAM and Learn to Code Courses, as well as other special resources to aid educators in teaching STEAM through distance learning.

SAM Labs products are currently used by 1,000,000+ students in over 5,000+ schools. Over the last 6 months over 30,000 individual users from the US, Europe, Africa and Asia have used SAM Studio. The average number of SAM Studio users per week is 3,000. 

SAM Labs’ 5 Year Scaling Goal is to reach 100,000,000 students across the USA’s 114,000 schools with our affordable, flexible, and impactful curriculum - maximizing impact to increase STEAM career uptake for underprivileged students.

Our vision of the future is that SAM Labs will impact all 200,000+ schools in the UK and US, as well as tens of millions of students at home. 

Increase no of Teachers prepared to teach STEAM & Coding

SAM Labs will measure the number of the Level1 and Level2 certifications awarded by SAM Labs to teachers and educators on a quarterly and yearly basis. 

Increase no of schools teaching STEAM & Coding

SAM Labs will measure the number of students using the SAM Blockly (the ‘Coding’ part of SAM Studio version) on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. 

Improving students results in the STEAM subject and computational thinking - based on formative assessment data

 SAM Labs will measure the students' improvement in STEAM by collecting feedback data from teachers and educators who use SAM Labs assessments on a yearly basis.

Full-time staff   19

Part-time staff   1

Contractors   2

SAM Labs has a fantastic team with deep experience in education, data analytics, marketing and engineering. 

 SAM Labs employees hail from the US, UK,  China, Vietnam, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Iran. Their different education and socio-economic backgrounds play key roles in shaping SAM Lab’s potential impact in many parts of the world. SAM Labs employees have been part of different education systems, very often in more than one country. Each of the countries mentioned above has its own spending budget and financial abilities. This diversity has helped SAM Labs to spot and address deficiencies in teaching approaches, respond better and more efficiently to educators and children's needs.

• Educational Consultants: with 10+ years of experience in STEAM, coding, robotics and curriculum development. Their experience helps them successfully identify teachers' needs and improve our products. 

• Insights Team:  data analysts, with experience in product, usage and customer analysis. They draw high-quality attainment and engagement insights to empower the teachers to adapt and improve their practice. 

• Lead Software Engineers: the engineering team continuously improves our app and website, making our products user friendly, solving any bugs or problems on a regular basis. They are constantly iterating on new products and will be critical to helping us scale.

• Sales Associates, Customer Success and Marketing: these teams are led by experienced professionals with keen market knowledge. Their market knowledge and network will be key for scaling through client outreach, quickly responding to client needs and translating those needs into new product iterations.  

SAM Labs Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

Diversity

 The SAM Labs team reflects the diversity of our beneficiaries - and we have been intentional about ensuring that would be the case. Our beneficiaries live on five continents, come from a variety of lived experiences, socio-economic statuses and educational attainment levels. We recognize that the knowledge and experiences brought in by our employees helps us to adjust and tailor our offering to the needs of students around the world.

Equity

SAM Labs is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and abilities.

The Company shall recruit, hire, train, and promote in all job titles, including interns, apprentices, and volunteers, without regard on race, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), colour, national origin (includes language use and possession of a driver's license issued to persons unable to prove their presence in the United States is authorized under federal law), ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, registered domestic partner status, marital status, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity, gender expression, the age for individuals over forty years of age, sexual orientation, military and veteran status of any person, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws (“protected characteristics” ).

Inclusion

SAM Labs is committed to fostering an inclusive and open work environment for our employees, partners and stakeholders. Our commitments are outlined in our policy handbook, which details our non-discrimination practices. 

SAM Labs provides easy-to-use, innovative and engaging solutions. Grants funded by Solve, The ASA Prize or the GM prize will be instrumental for SAM Labs scaling and deploying of STEAM & Coding learning products in the coming years. Specifically, the prize will equip SAM Labs to: 

• Deploy new solutions: that will actively respond to teachers and students' needs, in a similar way as we’ve adapted our products to remote-learning during Covid-19. 

• Build our staff: specifically Education Consultants, who support our partner schools and teachers in the US. Our Education Consultants will lead professional development courses, action product onboarding, collect and record teacher’s feedback, and help us iterate on products. 

• Establish strategic partnerships: work with not-for-profit educational foundations and government institutions to increase the STEAM career uptake of underprivileged students by 100% over the next 5 years.

• Reach more students: Impact 150,000+ schools in the US and UK and improve STEAM and coding learning quality and results.

• Achieve global brand recognition

Monitoring & Evaluation

SAM Labs is looking for support in data analysis & impact measurement to better support strategic decisions making marketing activities and planning. 

Product

SAM Labs would like to increase the impact and reach out to a large number of teachers and students, in the USA and internationally. For SAM Labs it is important to test and prove that its products truly benefit society and contribute to the student’s achievements. SAM Labs is looking for support to better measure the demonstrable and beneficial change in behaviours, beliefs and practices in regards to STEAM and Coding learning and further improvements based on its research.

SAM Labs would like to partner with STEAM & Coding Education focused organisations that could bring further insight into current teachers, educators, students & parents needs by sharing their experience in the education field. This also includes after-school clubs and summer activities for students focusing on delivering solutions that equip students with 21st-century skills.  SAM Labs would also be interested in organisations testing its products and providing feedback.

SAM Labs provides STEAM & Coding solutions Sam Labs offers a technology-based solution for primary and secondary students & teachers to successfully teach & learn STEAM & Coding.  Thanks to SAM Labs solution students become more engaged in STEAM subjects and motivated to learn. Building their own simulators allows students to better understand complex problems and definitions, while coding aspects bring a logical (IF/AND/OR) thinking approach into their learning journey. Students’ perception of STEAM subjects changes for the better and the stereotypes are challenged. 

SAM Labs solution responds also to teachers & educators needs. Teachers who do not specialize in STEAM or Coding often do not have the knowledge or tools to implement STEAM activities in their classroom.

SAM Labs curriculum & resources increase teachers confidence to instruct upon technical subjects and Reduce teachers workload effectively.  SAM Labs demonstrates that using its resources can support statutory requirements alongside engaging students in unique learning opportunities. 

The ASA Prize for Equitable Education

The ASA Prize will allow SAM Labs to further improve its new web-based app SAM Studio, expand the number of new lessons for STEAM, L2C and Maker courses as well as  improve and develop Professional Development courses for teachers & educators, by working on both collective data as well as in-person and digital studies with teachers within their classroom environment

There’s plenty of data on the growth of STEM careers, and the need for qualified workers to fill these jobs. These trends seem to be constant on the market and based on the last few years we can see these are accelerating.  However, most students are disengaged from STEAM subjects. Research funded by ESRC reported that science careers (excluding medicine) are not popular aspirations among 10-14-year-olds. By the age of 9 or 10, a significant proportion of pupils have already decided that the idea of studying science and technical subjects after the age of 16 and the idea of a career in a STEM area is ‘not for me’. 

SAM Labs is looking to change this by providing engaging, interactive & affordable STEAM & Coding resources that give students the ability to experience real-world complexities, solve problems, conduct experiments, create projects & prototypes. 

SAM Labs' mission is also to equip educators with the tools, know-how and mindset to teach computational thinking. Most teachers currently have insufficient knowledge and understanding of STEAM to teach it effectively and insufficient time to prepare lessons properly. SAM Labs provides step-by-step instructions, lessons, activities as well as professional development courses for teachers. 

The GM prize will allow SAM Labs to further improve its new web-based app SAM Studio, expand the number of new lessons for STEAM, L2C and Maker courses as well as improve and develop Professional Development courses for teachers & educators.

N/A

Investing in STEAM & Coding education should be a top priority for schools and other educational institutions. STEAM helps students succeed in all top priorities.STEAM is cross-curricular and touches all these subjects, which increases student understanding by giving them the opportunity to utilize their knowledge in different situations. For instance, a 2019 study on the effect of integrated STEM or STEAM education found that STEAM had an overall positive effect on student learning, especially in areas of the affective domain, career aspiration, thinking skills, and emotional skills. 

STEAM also contributes to developing Socio-Emotional Skills, 21-st Century skills (Critical Thinking, Technology Literacy, Leadership and Computational Thinking) and student engagement in the classroom. 

SAM Labs thinks STEAM and Coding education is a top priority. We also think that  STEAM and Coding education should be developed in many areas, by providing affordable hardware and software, developing new engaging standards-aligned lessons, and equipping teachers with the mindset, tools and know-how including guides, webinars and professional development. 

The GSR prize will allow SAM Labs to further develop and improve its solutions to effectively support students, teachers and parents in STEAM & Coding learning.