Thinkabit Lab enters new era with Fairfax County Public Schools

As some of Virginia Tech’s K-12 programming embarks on a new era, it’s fitting that it does so with one of the pioneers of STEM education at the helm.

The successful implementation of the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab at Virginia Tech helped introduce technology to tens of thousands of local students and has spurred other technical education and workforce development programs such as Invention Virginia and Invention D.C.   

“The presence of the Thinkabit Lab program at Virginia Tech has become the foundation upon which we’ve built all sorts of really wonderful programs and outreach and been able to advance technical education throughout the region,” said Jim Egenrieder, research faculty and director of Virginia Tech's D.C. area K-20 Technical Education and Workforce Development programs. He was Arlington Public Schools’ first teacher STEM specialist while he was a Virginia Tech doctoral student.  

The Thinkabit Lab opened in 2016 at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center location in Falls Church, welcoming more than 4,000 visitors in its first year. That number ballooned after the pandemic with more than 40,000 area school students and their teachers making the trip over the last nine school years. Also during that period, Egenrieder and his team helped to start similar programs in Arlington, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Prince William County, Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Fairfax County.  

The programming has been hugely popular with the whole year’s worth of openings typically booked by early September, a trend that has continued this year in its new space. Egenrieder believes the team found a sweet spot in offering the programming to students in fifth grade, before they are asked to make their elective decisions for middle school. By showing them a pathway toward careers in engineering that they may never have otherwise known existed, the team works to ignite that early interest.

“Middle school has been a blocker for would-be engineers. If students take a world language and a visual or performing arts class or even a different technical elective – all of which are also important – it’s often not possible to take engineering or computer science,” said Egenrieder.

As Virginia Tech’s strategic vision for the greater Washington, D.C., area led to programs shifting to the new Academic Building One in Alexandria, the Thinkabit Lab program moved with it but was looking for a new home in a classroom. That’s where another person who had first-hand experience with its promise – Alexandria’s Bucknell Elementary School Principal Rashida Green – stepped in.

“I was really excited when it was brought to us that Bucknell could be a host for it because I was able to see the magic that happens in that space,” said Green, whose college-age daughters both came through the program as middle schoolers. “Being able to see kids’ exposure to careers, engineering, and honestly, just the critical thinking and collaboration that happens in that space. My daughters left feeling very inspired when they had the opportunity to visit.”

The new space at Bucknell allows for two sets of programming while helping make the program more accessible for Fairfax County students. The STEM lab is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for Bucknell students, allowing them to explore technology such as 3D printing and microcontrollers. Starting in October, Tuesdays and Thursdays will be devoted to Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab programming with students from other schools in the area visiting for field trips. The school’s centralized location means that many of those bus trips will be only 10 to 15 minutes each way, maximizing the time spent in the classroom learning. Older Bucknell students enjoy Thinkabit Lab experiences on Wednesdays.  

“I think accessibility, with it being closer, really helps,” said Ray Lonnett, Fairfax County assistant superintendent for Region 3. “It makes field trips more manageable, shorter, and with a lower transportation cost.”

Egenrieder believes special spaces and the physical computing required can be replicated just about anywhere in Virginia where there are highly engaged educators. He’s also hosting programs for older students at Academic Building One in Potomac Yard, which is metro accessible for students from elsewhere in Northern Virginia, D.C. and both Montgomery and Prince George’s County, Maryland. And while the physical space hosting the programming is new, those implementing it are not just well-versed in the details but embrace the spirit behind the mission of creating a leading regional and national model for STEM pathways development.

Jessica Ittayem first visited the Thinkabit Lab as a sixth grade teacher at Poe Middle School in 2016, when the lab first opened at the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, and she would visit every year after that with her classes. She loved the programming but wanted to be able to do it herself, so she went to Qualcomm’s training in San Diego and went on to open up her own lab in her school as she transitioned from a science teacher to a STEM specialist. After the COVID-19 shutdown and her own maternity leave, Ittayem decided to go work with Egenrieder in Falls Church.

Now she has the opportunity to teach both, as a dual employee of Virginia Tech and Fairfax County Public Schools. She educates not just middle schoolers, but starts with programming for students as young as kindergarten to help introduce them to the technologies that will be embedded in their lives.

“I think the younger the better,” said Ittayem. “They’ll understand things a little bit better, and be literate in technology. Everything is quicker, faster. And you have to be able to understand the technology part of it.”

For Bucknell, the opportunity for not just the programming, but for someone with Ittayem’s background and vision to guide it, was a dream come true.

“She’s the perfect person in this position,” said Green. When you put the right people in the right spaces and give kids that opportunity, I think it all works out.”

While ultimately the goal is to inspire and prepare the next generation of problem solvers by introducing them to computing and STEM pathway experiences, both Egenrieder and Ittayem know all of that starts with that initial spark. And if they can get students inside the door, they can open their world.

“Every time they leave the Thinkabit Lab, we get, ‘This was the coolest day ever! I wish I could do this at home!’” said Ittayem. “They also learn to rebound from failure here. They learn to overcome their emotions by trying again. They leave here feeling like they could do anything.”