Wrapping Up a Year of Learning and Collaboration: The 2024-25 Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship

On May 3, 2025, educators, students, and program facilitators came together at Arizona State University to mark the end of this year’s Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship. It was a chance to share projects, reflect on what they’d learned, and connect with others who have been part of this growing community.

This was the End-of-Year Celebration for the 2024-25 Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship, a collaborative initiative from UL Research Institutes (ULRI) and Arizona State University’s (ASU) Mary Lou Fulton College of Teaching and Learning Innovation. As the second cohort of fellows concluded their formal program year, the room buzzed with reflection, creativity, and gratitude.

What sets the Xplorlabs Fellowship apart from traditional professional development is its guiding belief: students are not just future citizens—they are present-day contributors. Fellows across the country have spent the past year integrating safety science, sustainability, and Action-Oriented Pedagogies (AOPs) into their unique educational contexts. This isn’t about worksheets and unit plans. It’s about “real work with real consequences.”

And that’s exactly what we saw on display.

One of the highlights was the Project Showcase and Gallery Walk, where fellows shared about their student-led initiatives, from lithium-ion battery safety campaigns to school-wide waste system redesigns. What was revealed was more than a collection of projects — It was a testament to the program’s core ethos: teaching that invites participation, fosters agency, and connects learning to meaningful action.

Project Showcase and Gallery Walk

Throughout the day, facilitators organized focus groups and surveys to capture the experiences and insights of both educators and youth. Fellows were asked not only what they had done, but how it felt, what surprised them, and how their teaching had shifted.

While the event marked the end of this year’s program, it was also a beginning. Several fellows from earlier and upcoming cohorts participated, not just to help celebrate on their peers and their students, but to contribute to a growing network of sustainability- and safety-focused educators. As we wrapped up with a group photo, and lunch, it was clear: the Fellowship isn’t just a one-time experience. It’s a community. It’s a catalyst. And it’s a call to action.

The 2024-25 fellows have shown us what it looks like when education embraces complexity, honors student voice, and insists that learning should serve the world we all share.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing a series of posts that dive deeper into the work of individual Xplorlabs Educator Fellows. From classroom innovations to community partnerships, these stories highlight how fellows brought the Fellowship’s vision to life in their own contexts. Stay tuned to meet the educators, see what they created, and learn how they brought their ideas to life in the classroom.