Dedham Hosts Launch of Statewide Program Aiming to Build Massachusetts’ Next Generation of Creative Engineers

DEDHAM, MA. - Boston-based non-profit Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning & Creativity has launched Fab@School MaSTEM, a grant-funded initiative in partnership with United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, which is bringing an innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) program to economically-disadvantaged school children across the Commonwealth.

Funded by a grant from Cisco Foundation, the Fab@School MaSTEM pilot program is providing, free of charge, maker space digital design & fabrication software, hardware, and professional development support to seven school districts from Boston to the Berkshires, including a site at the Boston Children’s Museum. Earlier this month, educators from across Massachusetts gathered at the Endicott Estate in Dedham for the Fab@School MaSTEM launch event, dubbed the FabMaker Summit, where they were introduced to Fab@School Maker Studio online software tools, as well as curriculum designed to support Massachusetts’s 2016 Science and Technology/Engineering Standards, and Digital Literacy and Computer Science Framework.

Reynolds Center’s Co-Founder Paul Reynolds notes, “By creating a statewide innovation cluster model, we feel confident that we can scale Fab@School nationally, and reach our target goal of 17 million low-income students by 2025. If we can do that, we’re sure we’ll help move the STEM studies and career meter in a substantive way.”

Developed over the past six years as a research project through a partnership with University of Virginia and a consortium of partners that include Princeton, Smithsonian, SITE, and Hofstra University, the Fab@School project aims to tackle the disruption in the STEM studies and career pipeline by introducing more engaging STEM teaching and learning much earlier on in schools. With jobs in STEM field expected by grow 15% by 2020, the Fab@School consortium hopes to equip students to succeed in tomorrow’s economy.

"Fostering curiosity and enthusiasm for STEM learning will help more young people to see themselves working in jobs of the future," said Michael K. Durkin, president at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. "The Fab@School MaSTEM initiative is bringing together educators, industry professionals, government partners, corporations and community-based organizations to help prepare our students to graduate high school and compete in tomorrow's workforce. That kind of change doesn't happen alone.”

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