In LabXchange's Educator Connect webinars, real educators from around the world share tips, tricks, and strategies for using LabXchange in their classrooms. Below, read about the strategies used by one of our featured educators.

At St. Francis Misyani Girls' High School in rural Kenya, physics class once consisted of a teacher at the board, a handful of textbooks, and girls who had already quietly decided the subject wasn't for them. Shallom Sila—a physics and chemistry teacher, LabXchange Teacher Ambassador, and Global Teacher Prize 2026 finalist—recognized the trouble emerging from this setup. In 2016, only 9 percent of his students chose physics as an elective. As he understood it, the students' problem wasn't ability, but rather access.

"The question isn't whether your students can do STEM," Sila told attendees while sharing his story at LabXchange's May 2026 Educator Connect. "It's whether they've ever had a chance to see themselves doing it."

The school's physical laboratory resources were limited, and cultural pressure quietly steered girls away from science subjects. Sila needed something that could give students hands-on experience without the constraints of physical equipment and without the fear of failure.

The simulations and interactives available on LabXchange addressed both problems at once. Sila began using “Circuit Construction Kit,” a PhET simulation, to teach electricity, which was a topic that had previously felt inaccessible and even intimidating to many of his students. With no risk of electrocution and no dwindling supply of dry-cell batteries, students could build parallel and series circuits repeatedly, explore components they hadn't yet encountered in the curriculum, and learn at their own pace. The screencasting feature meant the platform worked on phones and smart screens alike, an important detail for a school where devices are shared.

"Girls fear electricity," Sila said plainly. "But LabXchange is demystifying this myth. There is no danger of electrocution, no danger of short-circuiting. They can try the parallel, the series arrangement, all risk-free."

The impact extended beyond electricity. When one student studying semiconductors shared a visual meme to explain the energy band theory, her classmates laughed and then grasped the concept in a way the textbook hadn't achieved. For Sila, that moment captured what LabXchange makes possible. "Before," one student reflected, "electrons were just words on a board. Now I see them move."

Kenya's curriculum is currently shifting from teacher-centered instruction toward competency-based education, a transition that asks students to demonstrate understanding rather than reproduce facts for an exam. Sila sees LabXchange as a direct bridge to that shift. "Mastery, not memory. Progress, not performance," he said. "That is what LabXchange made possible in my classroom."

Looking ahead, Sila plans to deepen his use of LabXchange across both physics and chemistry, and to continue advocating for the platform among fellow educators in Kenya. He's particularly focused on expanding access in rural schools where laboratory resources remain scarce, making the case that inquiry-based, simulation-driven learning is an important path toward comprehensive and engaging science education. "Let your students explore it," he said, "before you explain it."

For more tips, tricks, and insights about teaching with LabXchange, attend our next Educator Connect webinar in August 2026 (more info coming soon!), where you can hear practical advice from real educators!