Currently under construction across the street from UPrep's exisiting campus, the ULab will create a second academic hub, dedicated to igniting student passion for collaboration, creativity, and leadership through interdisciplinary and project-based learning. Here's a sneak peek at one innovative space on each floor of the building, with insights from leaders in our UPrep community.

WELLNESS STUDIO

"In the PE department, our mantra is movement brings inspiration. We think of physical fitness as supporting students' physical, mental, and emotional health, and providing them with the skills and building blocks to learn and improve their confidence and competence to move in a variety of ways and situations." —Kayla Robertson, Chair, PE Department 

This half-gym will provide additional space for Pumas to move and explore different types of activities that embody wellness, such as yoga, dance, and fitness classes. The space outside the gym will offer opportunities for students to use a TRX System (Total Resistance Exercises),
a workout that uses specialized suspension equipment, body weight, and gravity to build strength, balance, flexibility, and core strength. There will also be dedicated space for bike storage for students who ride their bikes to and from school.

OFFICE FOR INNOVATION AND ADVENTURE

“At UPrep, global and outdoor education are place-based, community-based, experiential learning opportunities. With global education, we foster opportunities focused on interacting with people in a new destination. With outdoor education, we foster opportunities focused on interacting
as a community in a new outdoor environment.” —Kate Williams, Global and Outdoor Education Program Manager

This office will serve as a hub for students and faculty participating in UPrep’s signature Global Link courses and Semester Away programs, preparing outdoor adventure experiences, and hosting international students. For example, the Office for Innovation and Adventure staff will help
students plan an ECHO (Enriching Community Health in the Outdoors) experience, guiding students to determine how their adventure will build community with others. Teachers will also collaborate with each other here to plan intensives that have a travel component. This office also partners with teachers to custom-design experiential learning based on their curriculum, their goals, and their students.

MAKERSPACE

“The Makerspace will be also available before and after school and during Community Time and office hours. They can bring in projects from home, build a project with faculty or coaches, or join one of many clubs, where beginners and experienced students can build and learn new skills with their peers.” —Jonathan Delgado, Academic Technology Coordinator

Filled with the newest technology tools—laser cutters, virtual reality (VR) headsets, soldering tools, 3D scanners and printers, and high-end computers dedicated to 3D design use—the 1,123-square-foot facility will make so much more possible for our community. Students will gain experience in design, engineering, and digital arts. Fine arts students, wearing VR headsets, will have the space to spread out and collaborate in a virtual world on a sculpture, painting, or other creations. Students in biology class may build a robotic arm to mimic the operation of a human arm. Computer science students can use a 3D scanner to design models of real-world items that they place into the video games they create.

ULAB FACULTY OFFICE

“Interdisciplinary learning prepares students for life beyond UPrep. When our alums report back to us about the work that they are doing in research labs, nonprofits, medicine, and start-ups, it all has interdisciplinary components to it. There are no more discrete subjects that they have to master, but instead a blending of knowledge that they need to be able to command and pull from at any given time.” —Joel Sohn, Director of Upper School

When we think of subjects that students study in school—English, history, math, science, PE, art, and languages—those are understood to be discrete disciplines. The reality is that in order for a student to fully understand what they’re trying to accomplish in a physics classroom, they need to have a working knowledge of all those subjects, so they can pull from them and transfer that knowledge to the problem that they’re trying to solve. Interdisciplinary learning helps UPrep students make deeper, more meaningful, and lasting connections with their learning.