LIFT and Michigan Tech Engage Detroit Students in STEM with Immersive Unboxed™ Challenge

Last month, LIFT partnered with Michigan Technological University (MTU) to once again host the Unboxed™ Challenge at LIFT’s Detroit Learning Lab.

Over two days, this event brought together over 150 students from local Detroit schools, including Detroit Southeastern High School, Western International High School, Southfield Middle School, Lake Orion schools, and Clarenceville Middle School, for this role-playing challenge incorporating engineering and STEM.

Unboxed Challenges, hosted by MTU’s Mind Trekker program, immerse students in role-playing scenarios designed to build skills like descriptive communication, collaboration, and synthesizing information from various sources. Engaging and hands-on, these activities not only reinforce classroom concepts but also break the routine and help students develop essential skills for their future success.

The challenges set for this year’s event at LIFT were the Unboxed: Treasure Hunt and Unboxed: Frontier, where students revealed hidden messages from a cipher, uncovered hidden treasure maps, worked together to open a cursed cryptex, and navigated across another planet’s terrain through a series of challenges as they worked to determine if the planet can sustain agriculture. These challenges incorporate elements such as CAD design, algebra, coding, and graph interpretation, giving students a taste of real-world engineering practices and introduction to STEM.

LIFT is proud to host the Unboxed Challenge with Michigan Technological University, where students are building interpersonal skills and gaining technical, hands-on experience in our immersive Learning Lab environment that demonstrates what career paths can be possible.

Thank you to Michigan Technological University for your partnership as we grow the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow together.