Acera is a lab school—a place where education is designed, tested, and refined in real time. We invent and pilot curricula and collaborate with leaders in education and STEM to inspire students and advance innovative teaching practices.
Our partners and collaborators have included Tufts CEEO, Scratch Foundation, Lieberman Labs, Arduino, LEGO Education, MIT Media Lab, One Brave Idea, and many more. Since our founding, the school has been innovating, capturing new ideas, sharing these ideas beyond our walls.
Acera students and educators are never passive recipients; they are innovators and help change the field of education.
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Real-world problem solving
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Access to emerging technologies
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Authentic research experiences
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Collaboration with experts
Graduate students from Tufts CEEO have been co-developing centers and programs with Acera faculty around engineering, design and robotics. Additionally, Tufts CEEO students have been conducting educational research with Acera students (with appropriate permissions from families of course!). This collaboration helped us bring in leaders from the CEEO to provide professional learning for our faculty this spring!
What We Build Together
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Engineering & robotics curriculum
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Maker lab projects
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Iterative design challenges
Impact on Students
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Authentic engineering practice
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Collaboration & teamwork
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Early exposure to engineering pathways
Lego Education came at the start of the year to pilot test a new STEM curriculum they are working on. Our students and teachers gave them feedback, and this product was refined and now is being shared worldwide. Our students loved meeting with leaders from LEGO Education, and had a lot of great insights to share!
What We Build Together
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STEM learning modules
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Hands-on engineering challenges
Impact on Students
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Creative problem solving
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Collaborative building
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Early engineering confidence
Acera students are co-designing the next version of Scratch, collaborating in workshops led by Design Director Tif Gagnon. Their insights help improve a platform used by 8 million kids worldwide.
What We Build Together
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Student co-design workshops
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Creative coding curriculum
Impact on Students
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Digital creativity
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Computational thinking
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Agency in design
Acera was featured in Arduino’s 20th anniversary campaign for piloting robotics curriculum with younger students. Our feedback helps shape their tools, and we get early access to new technology. This pilot has helped create new curriculum, and also provided us with many free robots to continue to innovate with!
What We Build Together
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Microcontroller projects
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Hardware + software integration
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Rapid prototyping challenges
Impact on Students
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Real-world electronics
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Applied coding
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Engineering creativity
Teacher Alexis Hibbler piloted and refined their civic science curriculum at Acera, then helped train and design lessons with public school educators in Boston and NYC.
What We Build Together
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Citizen science project
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Neuroscience research pilots
Impact on Students
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Real research participation
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Data literacy
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Scientific inquiry