Last year, the donations from our first Foothill Read-a-Thon were used to help fund our Foothill Maker Space. The Foothill Maker Space is a collaboration between the Foothill PTA and our Saratoga Union School District. We piloted many activities last year, including Community FabLab Nights and MakerSpace projects during the school day.
We designed work tables at appropriate heights for our students and built them. The tables all roll, have space for extra storage, and whiteboard tops.
The PTA also purchased two Akro-bin racks and the bins to fill them. The bins help us to organize supplies, and can be removed from the racks for use at the tables. We can also roll the entire racks to another classroom if we need to. The supplies in the bins come from donations.
We also designed some rolling bin storage using IKEA shelving units.This is great storage for fabric and also for LEGOs!
Tool and project storage is key to a successful Maker Space! PTA donations funded the slat wall and the aluminum inserts to make the slat wall extra strong! The district purchased shelving and hooks, and began to purchase tools for the projects they’ve started for the grades.
On the upper left, you can see the T stools that the 4th graders built for flexible seating. The tool with the gray cover is a vinyl cutter that the district purchased.
We want our students to be able to design and build whatever they imagine. Your donations funded a small CNC mill that is designed for education! Our kids will start using it this year. To the right, you can see the parts for the 3D Printer that your donations purchased. We should have finished assembling the 3D printer this week, and hopefully we can use it on our October 2nd FabLab Night!
Your PTA donations purchased the first of four Brother sewing machines as a prototype. The district purchased the others. Ms. Watson tells us that there are students who are choosing to use these machines during lunch Maker Space times. We also have projects in mind for FabLab nights and the students can use these for class projects as well!
The district purchased Little Bits and LEGO WeDo kits for the Foothill Maker Space. Ms. Watson has been working these into the curriculum. Your PTA donations also funded Hummingbird robotics kits that Ms. Watson will be including as well. Every grade can and will use the Maker Space to design, create, and build.
After our pilots and infrastructure-building last year, this year the focus is on cleaning up the processes and integrating the space into the curriculum. Thank you again and so much to our community–without you the Maker Space couldn’t have happened. We hope you can join us on October 2nd for a community FabLab night to see what you helped to build for our kids!