September 24, 2014
When students are placed in a conducive environment and provided unhindered creative 
freedom, inspiring and novel ideas are hatched. As a School for Project Based Learning, this is the recipe that Olander Elementary has followed with the creation of the Innovation Station learning lab in their school.
Located in Fort Collins, Olander Elementary is encouraging experimentation and tinkering by designating space, resources and class time to engage students in the discovery process and independent thinking.
Armed with gadgets, craft items, adhesives and magnets, tubes and twine, technology devices and loads of other random materials, students can visit the Innovation Station during the school day and engage their 
brains in engineering, science, design and tech activities. With an objective of bringing non-traditional solutions to traditional problems, the Innovation Station is giving students at Olander a space to develop their 21st Century skills at an early age.
As a grant recipient of the OtterCares Foundation’s Impact Fund, the Olander Innovation Station promotes entrepreneurial thinking through problem solving, trial and error, and collaboration, which are traits that will lead these young people to create lasting change in their communities later in life.