The basic philosophy of the Arizona Science Lab is that if students are to become interested in science and engineering, they must see and understand how scientific principles and engineering relate to their everyday lives.

The workshops at the Arizona Science Lab use numerous simple hands-on demonstrations to illustrate scientific principles and then show how those principles affect the engineering design and operation of everyday devices.  The scientific principles are then reinforced through a collaborative hands-on construction project which focuses on problem-solving skills and the engineering process of design, build, and test.  In addition, the workshop projects provide social interactions through teamwork.

Rigorous metrics from studies conducted by Professors of Engineering Education at ASU’s Fulton Schools of Engineering showed a significant improvement in student STEM knowledge, understanding, and motivation after each workshop

How Our Workshops Function

• Teachers bring their 4th-8th Grade classes (up to 60 students) to the Arizona Science Lab for a 4-hour immersion workshop in a science/engineering topic.
• The teachers choose a workshop from a set of ready-to-run STEM workshops that support the Arizona Science Standards.
• Each workshop is held in a laboratory setting, and employs instruction related to scientific principles, coupled with demonstrations, experiments, and a hands-on engineering design/build project.
• Workshops are conducted by a volunteer group of retired or employed engineers, scientists, and other professionals who are highly qualified in many science, engineering, and mathematics fields.  Our instructional staff has decades of real-world experience, and they can relate the theory being taught to everyday applications.
• The permanent location of the Arizona Science Lab is at the Evans Learning Center facility in Tempe.  Get Map and Address.

Interested in scheduling a workshop with the Arizona Science Lab?  Please go to our Workshop Descriptions page to view a short summary of each workshop that we offer, along with a .pdf of the workshop presentation and associated material.

To schedule a workshop, please fill out the form on this page.  Note that all fields marked with an asterisk must be filled in for the Submit button to work.  If you have questions, or would like to contact our Registrar directly, you may email Roy Zaborowski at registrar@azsciencelab.org. 

If you would like to receive occasional updates from the Arizona Science Lab, please click on the “Stay Connected” button below.  We would suggest that you use an email address other than your school account, so ASL does not lose contact with you if you change schools or your school changes domain names.