Alex Mayszak, Director of Digital Learning & Innovation at East Moline School District #37 in Illinois, not only outfitted all elementary and middle schools in the district with 3D printers and drones, he designed and launched the Exploration Station, a district-wide innovation lab offering immersive, project-based opportunities.
“We are really focused on giving our kids opportunities that are relevant and meaningful,” he says. “We want to make learning transferable between what they're doing now with next steps academically, but also down-the-road opportunities for students to dig into low-through-high tech experiences to test out their own, I want to be a ___ goal.”
For this and other efforts, Mayszak was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award at the Midwest Regional Leadership Summit in Naperville.
Mayszak shares his take on the value of collaboration, particularly when it comes to taking on the challenges of AI in education. Mayszak also shares considerations when creating an innovation lab in your district.
Exploration Station
Tying lessons and experiences into what they are learning in the classroom and beyond is key when undertaking a project such as an exploration station.
“We have students that have worked on coding and flying drones,” Mayszak says. “A cool component is opening their worldview, you can do this as a profession. You can use these skills in real estate, in the military, in fire control, in emergency management, in the agriculture realm. A lot of light bulbs go on and now the kids are intrigued about moving forward. Interdisciplinary cross-functional learning is really important.”
Mayszak doesn’t want the program to feel like a novelty treat, but an ongoing resource toward better learning.
“We don't want this to be a one-time, ‘Let's go do this cool thing because we earned it’ concept. We want this to be a normal experience,” he says. “We learn in the classroom, we move to the Exploration Station to do things, then the learning comes back to the classroom. It’s an ebb and flow of learning back and forth.”
The goal is for students and teachers to plan together in the classroom before coming down to the Exploration Station in order to give students opportunities to have some autonomy to create things, solve problems and really dig into things that makes learning more hands-on and engaging.
“We have students creating board games, mapped out based off of a book they were reading. They design and then 3D print the board and pieces and trade with their peers to play and critique the games,” Mayszak says. “We've got students creating podcasts. They are writing scripts, editing, publishing these creations. When you see a student sit down behind the microphone and the persona comes out — that confidence is really neat.”
Mayszak played an integral role in the development of new middle school electives such as Podcasting & Multimedia Editing, and ensured the longevity of his tech initiatives through robust professional learning opportunities.
“We were able to use some of the funding we had through carryover funds, but I've been fortunate working closely with our Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and the Superintendent,” he says. “They have been really supportive in this vision and seeing it forward to make sure we have means to start this, further it, and continue it.”
Mayszak says part of the future-proof plan is to always keep interdisciplinary goals in mind. For example, “Does this fit in ELA time, is it a science or math concept, all three?” “How can we tie in technology and STEM/STEAM concepts?” The goal is to show learning doesn't have to be in silos.
4 Things To Consider When Building an Exploration Station in Your District
1. Physical Space — “What can your district offer as a space to center your program?” asks Mayszak. “We have the ability during the day to use our internal busing system to bring kids here and to move some of this tech back into their buildings as well.”
2. Funding — “How are we going to build out some of these elements to offer the widest array of opportunity?” says Mayszak, who adds the district has laser cutters, 3D printers, screen printing, a podcast studio, and a multimedia lab.
3. Professional Learning — It’s critical to make sure the adults know what's at their disposal and that they're comfortable with it. “We brought teachers down to do some of the projects we would do with kids to get them engaged,” Mayszak says. “Then they understood, ‘This is an option I never would have thought about before, but now I know how to do this myself.’”
4. Concrete Structure, Routines, and Procedures — It can be really exciting for kids to go to other places, and demonstrates that learning doesn't just have to happen in the classroom. “Sometimes it can get a little extra wiggly, especially with younger students,” Mayszak says. “Make sure you have all those parameters built into the program where this is fun and this is exciting, but we're also going to get down to business in an academic way.”
AI Unites Summit — A Collaboration Station
Much like his dedication to creating a space dedicated to exploration of future goals for students, Mayszak wanted to create a place to bring stakeholders together to take on the challenge of AI in education.
“Life is always dynamic, but it feels like in the age of artificial intelligence, it's more dynamic than ever,” he says. “You start thinking, ‘What are schools for? What skills are we building out here?’ That's a really big opportunity for us to grab the reins and work together to make sure that teacher voice, educator voice, administrator voice, parent voice, student voice — all those perspectives are shaping the way we're doing things.”
Mayszak focused on the larger educational community by partnering with the Learning Technology Center of Illinois, his regional office of education, and vendor partners to create and host the regional AI Unites Summit 2025. The free event drew more than 100 attendees from 12 school districts, two colleges, pre-teachers, and community partners. It featured a keynote speaker, breakfast, breakout sessions, and a student panel.
“The ultimate goal was to create a wonderful one-day professional learning opportunity,” he says. “We know that budgets are shrinking in school districts and not everybody has an opportunity to get to a conference. This was free and in July when no one needed coverage for their classroom.”
The event had multiple breakout sessions — such as how to support English learners and students with disabilities, and being more effective with AI prompting and image generation — as well as vendor partners talking about how AI is embedded in their tool.
“The most important thing for me was our student panel with middle and high school kids,” Mayszak said. “All day long we talked and listened to adult voices. Student voices need to be right at the center of all this conversation as well. Our students are going to be the next wave, and it's really cool to help shape the future of the workforce.”
The student panel offered eye-opening insight about how AI “freaks kids out,” how students are already using it, how their friends are misusing it, and the passionate viewpoints on how it impacts the environment and academic integrity.
Those who attended received CPDU credits. Access was a huge priority for Mayszak, who didn’t want cost to be an obstacle to attend.
“If we create a barrier in this local summit with it being right down the road, then what would ever be an easy route for teachers to participate,” he says. “I worked with local grocery stores to help fund the breakfast items. We hosted at our administration building’s professional development spaces to avoid rental fees. I leaned into my professional network and the Learning Technology Center for speakers and to get expert voices around the table. I even put together some raffles with the help of generous vendor partners. If we're having really good conversations and learning, that to me is more important than it being really flashy.”
The event was such a success attendees have already asked for details about next year’s program.
“I'm really proud of this because I think it's a scalable model,” Mayszak says. “I think other people can do this no matter where they are located. We’re stronger when we operate together and when you pool knowledge, when you pool resources, all of those things can really benefit students.”
The Tools They Use
- Glowforge
- Cricut cutting machine & heat press
- Robolink CoDrones
- Chompshop ChompSaws
- 3D Printers (Flashforge, Elegoo, Lulzbot)
- Bee-Bots & Blue-Bots
- Lego Spike Prime Sets
- Ozobot Evo
- Sphero Bolt+
- LittleBits Invention Kits
- Keva Planks
- Podcast Studio (Rode Rodecaster Pro II) with microphones, headphones, seating
- Multimedia Lab (Green screen, GoPro Cameras, tripods)
- Science Interactive StarLab
