ROOTS experiential learning infrastructure features three categories of Sustainability Laboratories: School Learning Gardens, Controlled Environment Research, and Entrepreneur Development Labs. Within these we focus on developing youth as leaders who have developed the cognitive processes to solve problems of interest. Our approach is cross-disciplinary and inter-generational which stimulates student expertise in entrepreneurism, STEM with the inclusion of Art/Aesthetics and English Language Arts which aligns with all academic disciplines and standards.

ROOTS’ fourteen existing and expanding to twenty-six Experiential Sustainability Laboratories are the rich learning context within which students explore Sociological, Ecological and Technological Systems (SETS).  They see the micro and macro parts of these systems, the interconnection of their co-creating and co-evolving processes, and the systemic uncertainty and complexity caused by their interacting feedback loops, which are cumulatively important for developing a whole-systems disposition.