Five Northwoods school districts are among 25 statewide getting up to $25,0000 to fund Fab Labs in their schools. In the case of Three Lakes, they were the first K-12 District in the state to have a lab. The other districts getting funded are Rhinelander School District, Northland Pines Schools in Eagle River, Florence and Chequamegon in Park Falls. A Fab Lab is comprised of off-the-shelf, industrial-grade fabrication and electronics tools, wrapped in open source software and programs written by researchers at MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms.
Don Sidlowski of Three Lakes was instrumental in getting the first Fab Lab in a K-12 setting in Wisconsin set up in Three Lakes. He says there was great interest around the for schools to set up their own fabrication laboratories..
".....a total of 93 different school districts in Wisconsin applied for that funding, of which 25 have been selected. Each of those 25 districts with up to a $25,000 award. Each of those districts can use the money to purchase capital equipment...."
He says the new curriculum will lead to dreams becoming possible products...
"......a curriculum based around STEAM, science, technology, engineering, art and math. The entire time the students are in school, they're learning elements of the curriculum which they can take into the Fab Lab which have the machines which can make their ideas come to life...."
Sidlowski says students can tinker with their idea. At a recent meeting, a Three Lakes first-grader talked about some gadgets created in the Fab Lab. Sidlowski says this technology will create a new economic engine in the communities.
