This spring, the enthusiastic energy of students emanated from the dome room of the iconic Rotunda at the University of Virginia. These students weren’t undergrads, though – they were 7th graders.

For three days in March, students from Charlottesville Middle School filled one of the most iconic rooms in academia to proudly showcase their “BioBots,” robotic creations they’d built to mimic an organism and its adaptations. They eagerly answered questions from fellow students, parents, community members and local reporters. 

“It was cool,” Justine Puri, a seventh grader at CMS, said about the BioBots Showcase. “My Biobot was a simple design. I made a Morning Glory. It opened and closed, depending on how bright the sun is.”

The special showcase was the culmination of a months-long project that CMS students completed in the Innovation Hub, an award-winning lab school partnership between Charlottesville City Schools and UVA. 

The Innovation Hub, which was approved by the Virginia Board of Education in March of 2024, is unique from other lab schools in Virginia because it is available to every student at Charlottesville Middle School. 

“There are 15 lab schools across the state. We are the only one that serves every single student in the district,” said Conner Brew, Director of the UVA Innovation Hub. “And we do that because of the way that we push into the core content classes. Every other lab school is doing their instruction based on a lottery system or has an optional elective. And the most students that another lab school is serving is 100, so we actually serve more students than the other 14 schools combined.”

Providing all CMS students access to the Innovation Hub’s hands-on educational offerings has been a priority since its inception. 

“It was very important to the founders of the Innovation Hub to make sure that we were creating a learning experience that wasn't going to inadvertently widen the digital divide and widen achievement gaps when it comes to standard computer science,” said Brew, “Instead, pursuant to the City's mission, we're creating a community where everyone can thrive.” 

So what can a CMS student expect from learning in the Innovation Hub?

“Primarily, from the student’s perspective, what they're going to experience is student-centered, project-based learning that integrates computer science standards into their science classrooms,” said Brew. “They're also going to experience innovative, project-based learning in some of their other core content classes as well, if those teachers are participating in our innovation fellowship.” 

CMS teachers that participate in UVA’s innovation fellowship receive instructional support from Innovation Hub specialists for the entire school year. 

“CMS teachers engage with us in a program of professional learning and collaborative planning to design these project-based learning experiences,” said Brew. “Not only is project-based, hands-on learning great for building conceptual understanding, but it also takes those learners who may be struggling in a traditional environment and it really gives them an opportunity to thrive.”

The Innovation Hub’s approach is already garnering educational accolades. In 2025, the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition honored the Innovation Hub with its “Programs That Work” Award. 

And the program is continuing to expand. 

“The Innovation Hub is set up so that we can emphasize project-based learning in all of our classrooms,” said Kevin Paquette, an iSTEM teacher at Charlottesville Middle School. “It started with our science classrooms and with some Innovation Hub fellows…and then we expanded out to more people. And now, with the third year of [the Innovation Hub] coming up next year [in 2026-27], we've got other teachers applying to be fellows with the goal being that this is not a specific elective class or anything like that, but that any student here at Charlottesville Middle School will get exposure to these kinds of really meaningful, relevant instruction in classes.”

The hands-on instruction of the Innovation Hub is resonating with students as well. 

“It's cool to do these projects,” Puri said. “I really liked building the models out of cardboard. That was cool.” 

The school community that the Innovation Hub serves will expand at the start of the 2026-27 school year, when Charlottesville Middle School’s $91 million renovation project is completed and the school welcomes sixth graders to its halls. 

The first phase of the CMS renovation project was completed prior to the 2025-26 school year and already is paying dividends for the Innovation Hub. 

“We started this year being able to take advantage of some of the new spaces, like doing projects in the breakout spaces we have in the common areas,” said Paquette. “We're not just stuck in the classroom. We are spreading out and have more space to work and to talk, but also other people in the hallway can see what's going on and get excited about that as well. The new space really has helped us. And next year, when we have the media center fully opened, we'll be able to have that space to even showcase stuff here before going to the Rotunda.”

As its reach expands with the addition of sixth graders at CMS in 2026-27, the primary mission of the Innovation Hub will remain the same.

“I think it's really important that this is open to everyone in the school,” Paquette said. “It is really equitable, because it gets everyone involved.”