Launch Lab
Learn by building and discovering in our STEM tinkerspace
Complete with open worktop spaces, maker challenges, tools, and equipment, the Launch Lab at Morehead is where creativity and curiosity meet.
Visitors can participate in self-guided activities designed to promote discovery and exploration through hands-on, maker-centered activities. Morehead staff are present to provide assistance (like helping you use equipment) and to teach skills such as soldering.
Launch Lab schedule:
Access to the Launch Lab is available with each admission ticket (unless reserved for a special event).
Groups & Educators
For Grades 3-12
Length: 45 minutes
Maximum participants: 30 students per session
Group Visit/Field Trip Add-On
Learn the unique anatomy of our hands and explore how our bones, muscles, and ligaments work together to create movement. Students will use straws, yarn, and cardboard to build articulated model hands with fingers that move!
This class pairs well with an exploration of the Robotic Hand exhibit.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 6-12
Play with balance, stability, and centers of gravity by arranging everyday objects into surprising and complex sculptures! Students will practice conceptualizing and modeling a design by drawing it out before building.
This class pairs well with a Phenomenal Physics Science Stage demonstration.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 3-8 (ideal for homeschool groups)
Light pollution affects animals, astronomers, and human health. Learn about this growing issue and how efforts such as designing better streetlights can help to solve it. Students will create simple circuits and use light-measuring equipment to test their original lamp designs.
This program pairs well with a Carolina Skies show and an exploration of the Cosmic Quest exhibit.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 6-12
Discover the composition of white light, which consists of all the colors of the rainbow, by constructing your own light spectrometer! Participants will learn about how astronomers utilize these methods to determine the makeup of cosmic bodies.
This class pairs well with a Magnificent Matter Science Stage demonstration, an exploration of the Hidden No More exhibit, and the Cosmic Colors show.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 6-12
Students will start learning about circuits by building their own doodling robots. Once they’ve got the basics down, the real fun begins as they experiment with how changing the elements of their bot affects its artistic abilities.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 3-8 (ideal for homeschool groups)
Explore the effect that moving air has on objects, including constructions made from everyday materials. Test your creations out to see how modifying their designs affects flight patterns.
This class pairs well with an Under Pressure Science Stage demonstration and the Take Flight show.
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 3-8 (ideal for homeschool groups)
Healthy valves are crucial to the proper functioning of our hearts and an essential aspect of human anatomy. Using a variety of materials, students will design and create replacement heart valves, test their effectiveness, and discover research being done right here on UNC’s campus!
Grade Level Recommendations: Grades 3-8