In the summer of 2023, we worked with MDHA, MNPS, and MPD to create an eight-week program for youth from the J.C. Napier and Sudekum Homes. Students screen-printed T-shirts, made cups using concrete, carved blocks to print their designs, and made a one-string banjo.

We will bring these experiences into other summer programs for underserved youth as funding permits.

Some area high schools have equipment for woodworking, 3-D printing, and CAD-CNC in storage or sitting unused. We want to see this equipment be activated and made available for students. As a pilot, we are working with Stratford High School to redesign two classrooms to create a woodshop, computers for CAD, a CNC machine, and 3-D printers.

We are developing one-on-one training for high school and middle school teachers on how to use this existing equipment to make STEAM classes more relevant and exciting.

We have been asked by administrators and non-profits serving area high schools and middle schools to enrich existing after-school programs by bringing woodworking and other maker experiences to their schools.

Where professional equipment is on-site, we will provide supplemental staff to train and mentor interested students. In the absence of power tools, we will develop and deliver activities that rely on hand tools without the need for dust control and large spaces.

Many students in the latter schools are hungry to use power tools and learn advanced skills. For them, we are designing the nation’s first mobile Woodshop Wagon.

Working directly with innovative STEAM teachers, we are creating original kits tightly integrated into the existing curriculum. Once the curriculum and kits are tested and adapted to MNPS educational standards, we will offer them to teachers across the system.

As a pilot, In 2023, we worked with Antioch Middle School to design cars that students could build and a track for racing and learn about gravity, resistance, and momentum.

For the 23-24 school year, we are developing one project per month for three classes at Aventura Elementary School, an MNPS bilingual school. Students have built cars, birdhouses and boats, have learned about right angles, and are currently building three Little Free Libraries.