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From MIT Start-up to Exploration Experts

For nearly 50 years, EXPLO has provided engaging summer learning experiences rooted in the concepts of deeper learning and career exploration.

Through professional learning, curriculum resources, and coaching, we help schools bring our immersive, exploratory learning approach into their middle school classrooms. With our support, teachers build authentic learning environments where students engage in hands-on, real-world experiences that spark curiosity, creativity, and a sense of identity. Students learn through narrative-rich scenarios that reflect real job experiences and introduce potential career pathways. They take ownership of their learning, tackle complex problems, and develop both academic and durable skills in a cognitively and emotionally engaging setting.


Students who experience EXPLO's immersive approach report they are better problem-solvers and communicators, have more self-confidence, and are more interested in their other courses.

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Immersive Narrative Approach 

 

EXPLO creates classrooms that are portals to other worlds. Our approach is grounded in an immersive narrative where students engage deeply in hands-on, career-connected learning and teachers act as guides, facilitating student inquiry and deep learning.

Through this experience, students develop mastery of content area knowledge in an applied environment. They see relevance in how mathematical equations or good discussion strategies are tools that scientists, designers, and business people use daily. Within the narrative, students ARE the marketing team making a pitch to a new client or the forensic scientists preparing evidence for a case. As students are emotionally and cognitively engaged, they build curiosity and apply creativity as they shift from just accumulating knowledge to actively creating and developing their own sense of identity.

Chicken Run Engineering

Engaging Narrative

World-building begins with big, curious questions that are wrapped in a narrative that engages students and invites them to participate as experts. Outside experts, characters, and staging the learning environment help create and sustain the narrative throughout the course.

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Teacher and Student Interaction

Teachers as Guides

Teachers support deeper learning by acting as facilitators, guides, storytellers, and fellow explorers in the narrative. Sometimes, this means leading from the front of the room, but more often, it means floating between groups, asking guiding questions, and inviting students to take the lead in their learning.

Forensic Science Class

Real World Curriculum

Our curricular approach uses a backward design to write clear lesson plans that connect academic content to real-world career-related scenarios. Lessons are designed to encourage active doing, participation, and making in a way that brings the narrative of the class to life.

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