What We Offer You

Please read this information thoroughly prior to completing the Visit Request Form. You can also use this as your general reference guide before the day of your face-to-face visit. Please do not return this guide, we only need a completed copy of the Visit Request Form.

Thanks to generous investments from industry, state, and local partners, we are proud to offer you and your students this exciting program that travels throughout the state of Kansas! Using 3D virtual reality and live interactive activities students will be given the opportunity to try various careers which are in high-demand, both regionally and nationally. All careers shown are related to technical education STEM disciplines. Many activities offer students a chance to hone their problem solving and troubleshooting skills in a professional context, while getting more comfortable with high-tech tools. With this in mind, we highly recommend that teachers enhance and ground our efforts by integrating this experience into their STEM curriculum immediately following our visit.

You may be wondering exactly how we offer this. It’s a great question, so let’s talk about that now! The FutureMaker Mobile Learning Lab consists of a large truck/trailer that we bring out to your school. We will park and unload equipment that will be assembled in the classroom spaces you designate inside the building prior to our visit.

Note: Currently, no activities take place inside the mobile lab, our entire program will be completed inside your school.

Session Structure

Length: 80 Minutes

Students Per Session: Up to 25

All students will begin their session in a single classroom. We will introduce the program and explain what they will experience. We will then split the students into smaller groups for the activities.

Note: Please do not split the students into groups before their session, we will take care of that for you.

Depending on the activities planned for the day, students may rotate between demonstrations with the goal of allowing all students a chance to participate. Towards the end of the session, all students need to come back to the classroom we started the session in for a 5-10 minute discussion to round-out what they saw. We will also be letting students know about technical college education programs available to them in their nearby area at this time. Each session with us is typically 80 minutes long to align with a standard block schedule (though we may be able to accommodate special session length requests).

We can support a maximum class size of 25 per session, and multiple sessions a day are an option for you for a whole grade to participate. We recommend groups of 20-24 per session for the best experience. For larger schools, we offer multi-day service to accommodate all students in a grade level on a case-by-case basis.

Note: This experience includes elements of virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D imagery. It is not suitable for students with epilepsy or who are prone to seizures.

To ensure student and staff safety, and provide everyone the best experience, please inform students of these rules prior to their session time:

1.  Books and backpacks should be left in lockers/at desks prior to the scheduled session start time.
2. No food or drink is allowed around the equipment.
3. Students are encouraged to take pictures and video of the experience which they may post to social media, but all other cell phone usage is prohibited.

Note: We are happy to offer our service with shorter blocks of time to accommodate your school, but please be aware that some elements of the program may be skipped/abbreviated in this case.

What We Need From You

Building Access:

In order to move our equipment into your facility, we require access to a ground floor location with no stairs to climb, or an elevator to get to higher floors.

Mobile Lab Parking Space:

We will arrive onsite 1 hour prior to the start time for the first session each day. This allows the crew time to unpack and setup equipment in your building. Please have our parking area blocked off prior to that time.

A good rule of thumb for creating a maneuvering space for the mobile lab on arrival is 81/18, or:

Length needed: 81 feet minimum

Width needed: 18 feet minimum

Supervisory Helpers:

Our lab requires some additional support from your school to give students the best possible experience on the day of our visit, and to ensure student conduct is appropriate. Please have one or two supervising adults available to assist us for all sessions each day. We will need these helpers available 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the first session for a brief training on the program structure.

Note: Please attempt to keep the same helper working with us the entire day so that we can train the individual in the morning just once. Switching helpers throughout the day is not recommended unless necessary.

Space and Equipment:

We will need two classrooms in your building to setup our program (a library, gym, or other large common area that is quiet is also acceptable). They do not need to be next to each other, though that is preferred. Each classroom will need to have:

Minimum of 15 chairs

Minimum of 6 large tables

Access to at least 2 working power outlets

Wi-Fi internet access

We will provide cords and surge protectors, and all other setup equipment. We will arrange tables and chairs when we arrive to match the space and provide your students the best interactive experience.

Travel Expense Information

Please be aware that while the program itself is free to you thanks to our generous sponsors, for FutureMaker Mobile Learning Lab trips taking place 80+ miles from our home base in Wichita, Kansas we ask schools and organizations to reimburse us for travel expenses and provide the team with lunch.

Invoices for reimbursement of travel expenses are sent to our point-of-contact at each school/event, unless our contact person arranges to have them sent to another person ahead of our visit. You can expect invoices for expense reimbursement to be sent via email the week after we provide service, and are on Net 30 terms.

School Service

If you are a school requesting the FutureMaker experience and are 80+ miles from Wichita, we also ask that you find 2 other middle/high schools in your area that would like to share a 3 day trip over a Tuesday-Thursday. We package trips this way to provide the experience to more students, while allowing fuel costs to be shared across more schools, saving each some money.

2022-2023 reimbursement rates for a standard 3 day trip:

Hotel (3 double rooms each night for 3 total nights @ $150.00 per room) = $1,350.00
Generator Fuel (8 gallons per day @ $4.50/gal) = $108.00
Truck Fuel (7 miles-per-gallon @$4.50/gal) = varies by distance, for a 200 mile round trip, truck fuel would be $129.00 for example
Team lunch (4 people per day @$9/person) = $108.00
Grand total for trip = $1,695.00 (or $565.00 for each school if 3 schools participate)

Event Service

The FutureMaker Mobile Learning Lab team loves providing the public fun and interactive STEM career demonstrations at events. Some events do not require us to stay overnight, and some do based on time of event and distance. Hotel reimbursement needs will be arranged for your specific event requirements. Below you will find daily travel expense reimbursement rates for event service.

2022 - 2023 reimbursement rates for a standard single day event:

Hotel (3 double rooms for one night @ $150.00 per room) = $450.00
Generator Fuel (8 gallons per day @ $4.50/gal) = $36.00
Truck Fuel (7 miles-per-gallon @$4.50/gal) = varies by distance, for a 200 mile round trip, truck fuel would be $129.00 for example
Team lunch (4 people per day @$9/person) = $36.00
Grand total for trip = $651.00