RAFT Hands-On Education

I was excited as soon as I saw the new RAFT Activity Kit " Solar Collector " on the night of the RAFT fundraiser. I spent the rest of the evening sharing my enthusiasm with the patrons who stopped by for a passport stamp. Here's why... My textbook describes the scientific method using wind turbine efficiency. Currently I pay $200 for a wind turbine kit that serves only 4 students for a total expenditure of $2,000 per year for 10 kits. In contrast, the new RAFT Activity Kit will allow each of my 155 - 160 students to create their own wind turbine for under $50 - what a tremendous cost savings each year! In addition, the new RAFT Activity Kit will allow me to include the new NGSS standards on energy and engineering, because the students will learn about solar collectors and create a mathematical model for measuring the efficiency of their wind turbine design. So, RAFT worked its magic once again. I felt like RAFT held a fundraiser just for me, because with the m...

November 2, 2013 was a day of great excitement!   This year’s Bay Area Science Festival at AT&T Park in San Francisco, sponsored by Chevron, was full of interesting exhibits displaying unique approaches to learning about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). There were lots of robot-based activities for kids to introduce themselves to basic design and programming and other cool make & take experiences.   Throughout the day the sky was filled with sunshine, a few clouds, and an 8-foot wide floating soccer ball powered and steered using remotely controlled fan jets! Novel gadgets and battle bots set aside, the highlight for RAFT was being able to distribute 14,000 activity kits to eager children ready to learn science.   We distributed RAFT’s infamous Hovercrafts, Simple Stethoscopes, Critter Capsules, and Fizzy Rockets.   By far the largest crowd was in the Chevron tent, where thousands of people made the Hovercrafts and Critter Capsules at RA...