What’s happening: The Lab Drawer makes and delivers their monthly STEAM kits to thousands of customers across ten countries — and they’re doing it all from their newly opened headquarters in Detroit. The ed-tech subscription box service recently celebrated the grand opening of their brick-and-mortar location at the Durfee Innovation Society, a community hub in the city’s Dexter-Linwood neighborhood.
Who they are: Founded by native Detroiters Dr. Alecia Gabriel and Dierdre Roberson in 2017,
The Lab Drawer puts together monthly boxes of cross-functional learning experiences for children ranging in ages from 10- to 14-years-old. The monthly subscription service delivers a unique STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) experiment to subscribers, with each box fashioned to look like a lab drawer.
Why it’s important: “We truly hope that our services help to transform the lives of the students that we engage with. Careers in STEAM can provide and improve economic mobility. We can help them choose a career that will help them and their families in the future,” Dr. Gabriel says. “We would like to keep manufacturing in the city of Detroit to increase employment opportunities and build a more reputable future for those interested.”
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The monthly subscription service delivers a unique STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) experiment to subscribers, with each box fashioned to look like a lab drawer.
How they got here: The Lab Drawer founders knew that they wanted to keep their business in Detroit and a $50,000 cash grant from the Motor City Match program helped them do it. The company won the grant in that program’s 19th round of funding. They become the 139th brick-and-mortar business that the Motor City Match program has helped open in Detroit.
The application window for round 22 of Motor City Match opens on Thursday, Dec. 1,
and can be found online.
What they’re saying: “Because The Lab Drawer is run by two Detroit natives who are scientists, we produce a technical education product that is very engaging. We house all components of this, manufacturing everything ourselves,” Dr. Gabriel says. “It is unique that we merge STEM and the arts. We provide a very cool and technical learning opportunity for those invested in us. When STEM and the arts are discussed, we talk about the visual arts and creating artistic models, literary arts, poetry, the performing arts, and everything else related. Incorporating the arts is very integral to what we do. This is technical for the children invested as well. We are also artists, and due to our artistic backgrounds, we can comprehensively integrate these things into our program and kits.”
The Lab Drawer is located within the Durfee Innovation Society, which is located at 2470 Collingwood St. in Detroit.
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