After School STEAM Club for Year 3

Sophia Mitchell

Lab Tots & The Lab Tots Learning System are the brainchildren of Sophia Mitchell, or more affectionately known by her “Lab Tots” as “Proff”. Sophia is a professional scientist with a masters degree in chemistry from the University of Birmingham. She has many years of industrial experience from scrap metal & municipal waste incineration, to environmental monitoring & pharmaceuticals. Prior to founding Lab Tots, Sophia spent 5 years managing teams & departments. Sophia firmly believes in empowerment & collaboration. She built creative learning & development systems & was a strong advocate of coaching in her numerous leadership & management roles. Mentoring each individual in her team to realise their full potential. An active STEM ambassador & role model, she fostered her lifelong love of learning, passionately sharing her skills & knowledge. On becoming a mum & having witnessed the lack of STEM & Science provisions within Early Years settings, never fearful of a new challenge, in 2015 Lab Tots® was born. From developing inclusive, inspirational, innovative science & STEAM educational content, initially designed for 2-5 year olds, Sophia saw the opportunity to scale these flexible activities to meet the needs of a more mature audience. Everyone loves to play; the emphasis is on changing the delivery style rather than the activities. Building on the activities flexibility to meet the learners’ stage, rather than their age. This was never more evident than when Lab Tots represented the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for an enthusiastic audience of MPs at the Houses of Parliament. Sophia creates educational experiences through play, gamification & storification. She employs coaching & facilitation styles; creativity techniques & considers all educational theories as a ‘toolbox’ on which to draw from. Dipping in & out of educational ideologies & pedagogies, to meet the needs of the learner & the material to be delivered, is fundamental to the Lab Tots ethos. Having seen the power of this approach in action, to allow more learners to benefit from this innovative style of education, the development of a complimentary online learning system was the obvious next step. After much research looking for the right platform on which to host Lab Tots content, Sophia came back with nothing. In true “Proff” style, “if something doesn't exist, we’ll create it!”. Sophia started work on The Lab Tots Learning System & in 2019 teamed up with TechMates Solutions to bring her vision to life. As a result of the COVID crisis in 2020, the overall scope for the Lab Tots Learning System changed & expanded. From working with older children & home-schooling her own 6 year old during the numerous lock downs, the constraints of the current educational ‘tick the box’ systems & statutory testing, became strikingly apparent. Sophia decided to expand the reach of The Lab Tots Learning System. Although passionate about science & STEAM, Sophia has a love of all things from art, craft & music to life skills & literature. The importance of exposing learners to all disciplines, not only provides them with a catalyst to find out what truly fascinates them, but also makes for developing them into well rounded individuals. Everything in the world is interconnected & an awareness of that interconnectivity ensures a lack of ignorance. It seeks to invariably question, investigate, to challenge yourself & to enjoy the learning process rather than just the ‘destination’ that comes with a certificate or piece of paper. Having worked in industry & seeing many adults flounder with so called ‘Soft Skills’, the importance of solving these issues by identifying the ‘root cause’, emphasises the need to educate children in these essential skills to thrive. Building resilience & nurturing wellbeing is therefore a critical necessity. Passionate about efficiency, Sophia firmly believes in providing multidimensional, multidisciplinary, purposeful, deep & meaningful educational experiences that give the learner real ‘bang for their buck!’. Education that begins with ‘Why?’ & integrates as many of these essential skills as possible ensures a purpose. By creating The Lab Tots Learning System, Sophia hopes to bring on board other like-minded educators, to grow the platform into a real force for educational change. To provide learners with access to Fab-Lab-U-Lous resources, access to phenomenal Lab-Tot-Tastic educators, to explore the world, to ignite their lifelong love of learning & facilitate that learning odyssey. Your Ed-Venture starts & continues with The Lab Tots Learning System!