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.

Science teacher Carol Artacho-Guerra has learned to expect the unexpected. As an educator at The Map Academy, an alternative high school in Plymouth, Massachusetts, she never quite knows who will walk through the door on a given day—or what they'll be ready to do when they get there. The Map Academy serves students who have been let down by traditional school systems, many of them arriving with interrupted learning histories, significant academic gaps, trauma, and a deep disengagement from school itself. Attendance isn't a marker of success. Students decide what to work on when they arrive, and no two days look alike.

Preparing for Anything

"My day looks like whenever a student feels like coming to school," Artacho-Guerra explained at the LabXchange Educator Connect webinar on May 20, 2026. "Once they get here, they decide what they want to work on that day. Truly, I have no idea what the day brings."

In that environment, traditional lesson planning has limited utility. Artacho-Guerra keeps a "lab in a box" setup ready for every course, but the impromptu nature of her classroom means she also needs something searchable, flexible, and immediately deployable. That's where LabXchange simulations come in. The easily browsable library means that when a student shows up ready to tackle physics, biology, or something entirely different, Artacho-Guerra can quickly find a learning resource that meets them at their level and holds their attention. For a population that has often been told, directly or indirectly, that school isn't for them, getting that initial spark of interest matters enormously.

Simulations also help Artacho-Guerra solve a problem she encounters constantly: cognitive overload. Some of her students need to run experiments using complex data acquisition technology, but the effort of learning the tools can crowd out the actual science. LabXchange's gel electrophoresis simulation, for example, orients students to the equipment, lets them work through the process, and helps them understand what they're looking for before they enter a lab environment. "When they do use those tools in real life," she said, "they have already seen it. They already know what to expect."

Meeting Learners Where They Are

LabXchange also gives Artacho-Guerra the flexibility to meet students across a wide age range (The Map Academy enrolls students up to age 24) without asking anyone to do something that feels beneath them. A conservation of energy concept that a fourteen-year-old might explore by building a paper roller coaster can be equally accessible to a twenty-two-year-old through the PhET Energy Skate Park simulation.

For Artacho-Guerra, the deeper goal is always the same: to help students who have been written off see themselves as capable of doing science. "I prioritize getting them excited and giving them access to science," she said. "Being a scientist isn't about finding the forces. It's about being curious and imaginative and just wanting to engage with the world around you and understand it better."

Looking ahead, Artacho-Guerra is eager to expand how she uses LabXchange beyond simulations, with particular interest in CareerXplorer, LabXchange's career exploration tool, a natural fit for a school that builds post-secondary planning into every student's path. For now, she's focused on being ready for whoever walks in, and making sure science is waiting for them when they do.

For more tips, tricks, and insights about teaching with LabXchange, read about other educators' experiences in our Educator Connect series.