MindLabs Review by a STEM Educator
2025 Educators Pick Best of STEM® Winner — Trailblazer: Virtual Labs Luminary
Reviewed by Kim Collazo, STEM educator and Best of STEM® judge · Educator NPS 10/10
MindLabs, from Explore Interactive, Inc., is an augmented-reality science platform for elementary classrooms. It won the Trailblazer: Virtual Labs Luminary award in the Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2025 Awards, the only STEM awards program judged by science, STEM, and CTE educators.
Judge Kim Collazo, a STEM educator, tested MindLabs with her students and rated it 10 out of 10 on the Net Promoter Score scale (what this score means). Below: what she found, eight short video clips, and an educator FAQ.
What MindLabs is, and what a STEM educator found
MindLabs combines augmented reality, story-driven science challenges, and hands-on exploration so elementary students can investigate STEM concepts the way scientists do. Students point a tablet at physical AR trigger cards, build circuits, run experiments, test ideas, and get immediate feedback, all inside a mission with a purpose.
It ships with a complete, classroom-ready curriculum, an interactive digital notebook where students record their thinking, and a real-time teacher dashboard for tracking individual progress during group work. Because it needs only a tablet and the cards, it works in classrooms with limited technology budgets and no dedicated lab space.
Educator NPS for MindLabs: 10 out of 10
Kim Collazo teaches STEM in elementary school and served on the 2025 Best of STEM® judging panel. She used MindLabs with her own students before scoring it. Four things stood out:
- It drops into lessons you already teach. Ready-made activities and guided AR experiences meant minimal prep, and the units fit existing science topics rather than replacing them.
- Students stay on task. Structured problem-solving and the AR visuals reduced off-task behavior and gave students more room for self-guided exploration.
- It teaches real scientific practice. Students hypothesize, test, revise, and reflect, which is the inquiry cycle NGSS asks for, instead of memorizing facts.
- Failure is built in, productively. Letting students fail and retry inside a challenge built resilience and problem-solving without teacher rescue.
Award
Winner, Trailblazer: Virtual Labs Luminary — Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2025
Best fit
Elementary science, grades K–5. Needs only a tablet and MindLabs AR trigger cards; NGSS-aligned lessons.
Product site
exploremindlabs.com · Made by Explore Interactive, Inc.
Watch: Kim Collazo on MindLabs (8 short clips)
Each clip runs under a minute. Kim covers how she integrated MindLabs into her routines, what problems it solved, how students responded to the AR challenges, and one teaching tip for getting more inquiry out of it.
1. Easy integration into classroom routines
Kim explains how teachers can quickly bring MindLabs into their lessons using ready-made activities and guided AR experiences. She highlights how the platform requires minimal prep time and fits smoothly into existing science units.
2. How MindLabs solves hidden classroom challenges
Kim shares the instructional challenges MindLabs helps address—from increasing student independence to creating more opportunities for self-guided exploration. She discusses how the tool reduces off-task behavior and helps students focus through structured problem-solving.
3. Engagement through AR and interactive challenges
MindLabs uses augmented reality and story-driven missions to capture student interest. Kim describes how AR visualization, puzzle-solving, and immediate feedback help students stay motivated and excited during science activities.
4. A practical teaching tip for boosting inquiry
Kim offers an educator tip on making science more interactive: combining structured tasks with open exploration. She explains how MindLabs helps students ask questions, experiment, and discover concepts for themselves.
In Kim Collazo’s words
5. Curriculum and interactive notebook tools
This clip highlights how MindLabs offers a complete, classroom-ready curriculum paired with an interactive digital notebook. Kim explains how these resources help students document their thinking, reflect on their learning, and stay organized throughout STEM challenges.
6. Helping students think like scientists
Kim discusses how MindLabs supports NGSS-aligned inquiry by encouraging students to hypothesize, test ideas, and revise their thinking. The platform helps students engage in authentic scientific practices rather than memorizing facts.
7. Student agency through open-ended discovery
Kim shares how MindLabs gives students ownership of their learning. Through experimentation and exploration, learners gain confidence, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of science concepts.
8. A growth mindset through trial and error
Kim reflects on how allowing students to fail and retry within MindLabs challenges helps build resilience. She highlights how this small shift in teaching approach strengthens problem-solving and perseverance.
Educator FAQ: MindLabs
How easy is it to integrate MindLabs into an existing science curriculum?
MindLabs is designed to fit into science instruction you already deliver. It includes ready-to-use, NGSS-aligned lessons on topics such as force and motion, energy and circuits, and habitats. Kim Collazo reported minimal setup, so adopting it did not add planning time.
What classroom challenges does MindLabs help solve for teachers?
Limited materials, time constraints, and student engagement. Teachers need only AR trigger cards and a tablet, which cuts storage and supply costs. The built-in curriculum and teacher dashboard streamline lesson preparation so educators spend more time guiding learning and less managing logistics.
How does MindLabs support student engagement in STEM learning?
Through augmented reality, interactive challenges, and narrative-driven missions. The AR experiences help students visualize abstract science concepts, and the story-based missions give learning a clear purpose. In Kim Collazo’s classroom this kept students focused, collaborating, and actively solving problems.
How does MindLabs align with NGSS and inquiry-based learning?
MindLabs asks students to question, test ideas, revise their thinking, and reflect on outcomes. Rather than memorizing facts, students engage in hands-on experimentation and investigation, which are core components of NGSS science and engineering practices.
How does MindLabs help students think like real scientists?
Guided experimentation and AR simulations lead students to observe, predict, test, and iterate. Kim Collazo noted that students learned to analyze results, adjust their approach, and develop scientific reasoning that mirrors real-world practice.
Is MindLabs suitable for classrooms with limited technology or budgets?
Yes. MindLabs does not require VR headsets or expensive lab equipment. With AR cards and a tablet, a classroom can run immersive STEM experiences, which makes it accessible to schools with varying levels of technology and budget.
How does MindLabs support productive failure and student agency?
Students are encouraged to experiment freely and learn from mistakes. Kim Collazo found that allowing trial and error built resilience, perseverance, and confidence, and that students took ownership of their learning instead of relying on constant teacher intervention.
What curriculum and assessment tools come with MindLabs?
A complete, classroom-ready curriculum, an interactive student notebook, and a real-time teacher dashboard. Students document their learning in the notebook; teachers track individual progress, even during group activities, on the dashboard.
Who is MindLabs best suited for?
Elementary classrooms and educators who want science to be more hands-on, engaging, and inquiry-driven. It supports teachers who are confident in STEM as well as those who feel less comfortable teaching science, because the structured guidance is built in.
Why did a STEM educator recommend MindLabs?
Kim Collazo gave MindLabs a Net Promoter Score of 10, the highest possible, because it combines engagement, ease of use, and strong instructional design: AR-driven activities, NGSS alignment, and classroom-ready resources that let students explore, experiment, and learn independently.
About this review and the 10/10 score
This review is part of the Educators Pick Best of STEM® Awards, operated by Catapult X and The Teich Group in partnership with MCH Strategic Data, the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), and the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). Entries are evaluated first by a panel of practicing educator judges, then by STEM educators nationwide through a survey.
What the score means. Each judge answers one question after using a product with students: “How likely are you to recommend this to a colleague?” on a scale of 0 to 10. That is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question, the same one used in customer research across industries; 9 and 10 are “promoters,” 7 and 8 are neutral, and 0 to 6 are “detractors.” A 10 is the strongest recommendation a judge can give. Read how Best of STEM® judging works.
Review published November 18, 2025; updated September 4, 2026. Video clips were recorded with Kim Collazo for Catapult X’s Brand Boost educator review program.
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