With five 3-D printers, two laser cutters and not a desk in sight, the Innovation Lab at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy seems more like a workspace at a tech company or government facility than a high school classroom.

That’s exactly the point, says Elizabeth Joyner, the school’s new STEM learning and innovation specialist.

“We’re encouraging students to tinker and play,” she said. “They’re willing to come in and instead of having a study hall or a free bell to sit with their friends, they’re here trying to solve problems.”

The school has been ramping up its technological education for several years, but the new Innovation Lab — funded by the capital campaign launched last year — is the pinnacle of that effort.

“Most schools talk about 21st-century learning and what that looks like,” Joyner said. “Very few schools are planning robust programs like NSA has. The administration wants to be a part of 21st-century learning.”

The school has implemented an Introduction to Design course that is an elective for students in grades 9 through 12. But the lab is benefiting the entire school — even the sports teams. The students made a sign with Bishop Sullivan on it for coach Lew Johnston to break over his head after the Saints pummeled the Crusaders at home last week.

There’s applications for other parts of the school, too. The students have made everything from a model heart for anatomy class, created by student Jack Burns, to 3-D maps of Roman towns for Latin class to spare parts for musical instruments for the band. Students can either scan items or use computer-assisted design to create them.

“We have to engage our students in their own learning,” Joyner said. The students even helped to develop their own grading system for the class.

“This lab gives us an opportunity that we haven’t had access to before,” said Hailey Gilman, a junior. “We come in occasionally after school as well.”

The students also plan community service with the lab. Junior Allie Wilburn discovered a way online to craft artificial limbs using the equipment they have in the lab, so a summer camp session is planned next summer on that topic.

Students are collecting plastic bottles to be recycled into filament for the 3-D printers, so they also are helping the environment.

Students in the class work in groups based on their personality types, and each has a website with all the work they have done in the class. Students use “the cloud” to collaborate, edit and make presentations, so they’re learning about the newest online technology, too.

The students enjoy the hands-on learning, they said.

“We can actually use the machines, not just learn about them,” said Tess He.

“It’s hands-on; we’re not just reading a book,” Steven Utley Jr. said.