The Founders of Gearbox Labs
Gearbox Labs was founded by two educators, Isabel Mendiola and Peter Haydock, who share a common belief: every learner deserves opportunities to discover what they are capable of becoming.
María Isabel Mendiola Ramírez, M.Ed.
María Isabel Mendiola Ramírez brings deep classroom expertise, instructional leadership, and a relentless commitment to educational excellence. As an award-winning STEM educator and doctoral student in STEM Education, she combines research-informed practice with a passion for helping every student achieve at the highest level. Her work reflects a belief that meaningful learning experiences should be grounded in thoughtful pedagogy, high expectations, authentic engagement, and continuous improvement for both students and teachers.
Peter G. Haydock, MLIS
Peter Haydock brings decades of experience designing authentic STEM learning experiences, building partnerships, and creating innovative educational programs that connect classrooms with real-world challenges. His work is grounded in the belief that students learn best when they are trusted with authentic challenges that inspire curiosity, creativity, and confidence.
Together
Together, Peter and Isabel combine complementary strengths that define Gearbox Labs. Peter brings vision, innovation, and the ability to imagine what education can become. Isabel brings instructional expertise, research, and a commitment to ensuring those ideas translate into exceptional learning experiences for every student and teacher.
Their partnership blends imagination with implementation, innovation with evidence, and vision with classroom practice. Every Gearbox Labs program reflects this balance—creating experiences that awaken wonder, inspire possibility, and empower learners while providing educators with the support, resources, and confidence to build lasting cultures of innovation.
They believe education is not simply about preparing students for the future. It is about helping students and teachers discover what they are capable of becoming, and then walking alongside them as they imagine, design, and begin building that future together.
Our mission is to produce cutting-edge and rigorous STEAM education resources and programs for schools, homeschools, out-of-school programs, and self-motivated learners.
Our first curriculum, The STEAM+C Classroom: STEAM Edition, features 25 projects with 110 project extensions for a STEM/STEAM classroom. Our curriculum integrates engineering design, coding in C/C++, and digital prototyping into STEM/STEAM content.
We feature many data sensors in the book that can be used to collect data or control machines. We have written the book for grades 5 and up. The book can also be used in an afterschool or homeschool setting.
Since publishing this edition, we have written several supplements featuring new sensors, a thematic guide around flight, and starter guides in English and Spanish.
We piloted the curriculum in Monterrey Mexico between 2015 and 2019 in an elite private school with hundreds of students from grades 7 through 9. The projects are easy to use, but at the same time rigorous. One student used the book as the foundation for her winning the Mexican National Science and Engineering Competition in 2017 and 2018.
Our second book, The STEAM+C Classroom: Internet of Things Edition, features 25 projects for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS connected devices. The book focuses on practical applications with sensors and controls.
Our forthcoming book, The STEAM+C Classroom: STEM Data Edition, features projects for science and engineering fairs that collect large amounts of data. Whether to an SD card, Google Sheets, or Excel live data capture is the primary focus. A section on the new ESP-EYE webcam is also included.