LaunchPad Continues
After five years and over 30,000 students impacted, the LaunchPad program is thrilled to share that we will keep supporting teachers and students in both the Austin and Houston areas for the 2026/2027 school year, thanks to our ongoing partnership with the Apple Community Initiative team. Alongside our regular programming, we have added new grant opportunities and more ways to join LaunchPad with extra coaches on the team.
Recently, the LaunchPad program hosted a notable visitor. Mr. John Ternus, the new CEO of Apple, toured one of our sites and interacted with students at Summitt Elementary in Austin, TX. Beyond meeting the children and coding alongside them, Mr. Ternus observed firsthand how creativity and coding converge in our program. More about this amazing visit a little later in the post.
Based in Region 13 Education Support center, LaunchPad began in Austin, TX and expanded to Houston during the 2024–25 school year. Our model is straightforward: a coaching approach that spends five to six weeks in a classroom, modeling lessons and co-teaching with iPads, STEM tools, Apple’s Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create curriculum, and blended projects.
These opportunities occur mainly in campus libraries and art classroom spaces, allowing one cart of iPads to be used by the entire campus. This model has been highlighted by the Apple Community Initiative team at Apple Leadership and Learning conferences, with replication at several global sites.
Click her to download the LaunchPad Playbook
The LaunchPad Playbook
With this post, we wanted to share something we created for our LaunchPad partners. We have developed a LaunchPad playbook that includes links to curriculum and resources. While it will not cover every need, we will keep this a LIVE eBook that we hope to update as new ideas come around. We are also available to support anyone wishing to replicate this model.
The LaunchPad coaches, Andy Holuck, Richey, and Jacob Luevano, are classroom educators who love to teach and recognize that students learn differently at each campus. They work with teachers to adapt the curriculum. This collaboration results in a unique six-week curriculum for every campus, which is very exciting for us and participating teachers.
We understand that the best way to coach fellow educators on integrating new digital tools is to give them time to work alongside you. To ensure every teacher gets the support they need, we spend our six-week sessions working with only two or three teachers at a time.
The Visit: Creativity and Coding in Action
During his visit, John Ternus observed a project that beautifully blends creativity and coding. It follows the model of our LEGO robotics competitions in Manor ISD, Texas, when I helped coordinate it there. Students design challenges for one another but cannot attempt to solve them until competition day. This creates an environment of real-time problem solving the day of the competition/demo day.
We were fortunate to have Mr. Ternus visit Summitt Elementary, where students had been working on their projects for three weeks with Librarian Denise Richey. For this particular challenge, we used Sphero robots, though we have also used LEGO robotics and Ozobots in the past. This adaptable format works well with almost any turn-based programming robot.
The rules were simple: each challenge had to include three turns, a curve, an action of some kind, a theme, and a story. This is where the creativity really came into play. Students created everything from galaxy-traveling challenges to world tours and zombie escapes.
When it came to coding, the students had to solve each other's challenges on the day of Mr. Ternus’s visit, fostering an environment of exploration and real-time problem solving. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold, and exactly what every educator wants to witness: students having fun while learning.
The visit was an experience our students will never forget, and we are very grateful to Apple and the Apple CEI team for having this opportunity even be a possibility for Summitt Elementary and LaunchPad. Here is a great post by John Ternus on social media
As we look ahead to the rest of the school year, we are excited to continue bringing these hands-on learning experiences to even more classrooms. Whether you are an educator looking to implement the LaunchPad model at your school, or just want more information, we would love to connect with you. Thank you for your continued support as we work together to inspire the next generation of creators and coders.
LaunchPad Austin & LaunchPad Houston
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