28 New Hampshire Schools & Libraries Land FabMaker STEM Grant
The Boston-based nonprofit Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, with grant funding from the Cisco Foundation, has launched the FabNH FabMaker STEM Program to bring an innovative STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) program to young learners in high-need communities across the state. The FabNH FabMaker STEM Program is initially providing 25 schools and 3 public libraries with FabMaker Studio digital design and fabrication software, fabrication hardware, and professional development support. FabNH is being launched in partnership with New Hampshire Society for Technology in Education (NHSTE), along with program support from FableVision Learning and GEAR UP New Hampshire.
On Friday, March 29, nearly 50 educators from across the state will gather in Manchester for the Fab@School FabNH launch event. Designed as a hands-on professional development experience, teachers will learn how to use the FabMaker Studio online software tools, and be introduced to flexible curriculum designed to support national STEM standards. Attendees will also receive signed, personalized copies of Going Places storybook about engineering and creativity written by the Reynolds Center’s Paul Reynolds and his twin brother Peter H. Reynolds (The Dot, Judy Moody, Say Something, Word Collector, etc.)
Implementation of the FabMaker software is already underway in schools and libraries, and students will start with the program in April. FabNH also features an innovative school-to-public library connection. Manchester City Library, Hooksett Public Library, and Nashua Public Library have joined the FabNH FabMaker STEM Program to provide extended STEM learning opportunities for students in schools that have landed FabNH grant Awards.
About Fab@School FabMaker Studio
Fab@School FabMaker Studio design and fabrication software program was developed over the past eight years by Dr. Peggy Healy Stearns and Reynolds Center/FableVision as a research project under the leadership of Dr. Glen Bull at the University of Virginia, along with a consortium of partners that includes Princeton, Smithsonian, SITE, and Hofstra University. Fab@School has received funding from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences, with additional funding from MacArthur, Noyce, Alcoa, Motorola, Morgridge Family, and Cisco Foundations.
The web-based program allows students to use the engineering design process to imagine, design, print, test and iterate a wide array of objects, including pop-ups, working machines, buildings, boxes and packaging, wind turbines, automata, paper airplanes, speakers, model skateboard parks, and more. While Fab@School FabMaker Studio prints out to laser cutters and additive layer 3D printers, most teachers and students are using more affordable digital fabricators - more commonly known as scrapbooking machines,which can be easily source at local arts and craft stores.