Case Studies

Iredell-Statesville Schools (ISS) runs more than 25 schools in Iredell County, North Carolina. When the district set out to build its own mobile STEM trailer, there was no working model to copy. STEM Coordinator Debra Lester found one in Betabox. She studied its onsite lab visits, joined its Educator Advisory Board, and designed a district-owned trailer that cost the district $0 to launch. A state grant of nearly $300,000 paid for the equipment. Each year the trailer is set to reach more than 2,000 students, every 7th grader in the district.

MITRE's Huntsville iHub sponsored 16 days of hands-on cybersecurity learning at eight north Alabama schools, rallied its own staff as volunteers, and opened the door to district-wide follow-on programming. MITRE, the not-for-profit operator of federally funded research and development centers, partnered with Betabox through its iHubs community outreach effort, with Kim Shepard of MITRE as sponsor. The program served Marshall and Etowah counties, Alabama (Huntsville area), and combined a MITRE-branded Betabox mobile lab, Onsite Field Trips with cybersecurity-focused curriculum, follow-up lesson plans for teachers, and MITRE employee volunteer shifts. After a purchase order and kickoff in fall 2022 and a MITRE site launch day on Nov. 18, 2022, Betabox delivered 16 event days at 8 schools in April to May 2023, followed by a post-visit student survey in May 2023. About 30 MITRE staff toured the lab at launch and 23 signed up as volunteer prospects. Of 78 digital post-visit survey responses, 92% said the visit increased their understanding of why cybersecurity is important at least "to a moderate extent," and 90% said the same about understanding cyber attacks.