September 19, 2014 at 4:46 p.m.
Three Lakes Fab Lab wows state officials
Three Lakes Fab Lab wows state officials
By Marcus Nesemann-marcus@rivernewsonline.com
The Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory) is the first MIT-chartered lab in a K-12 school system in Wisconsin and only the sixth such lab in the entire state.
It was built thanks, in part, to a $212,000 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Fast Forward grant obtained with the help of Northwoods Broadband and Economic Development Coalition founder Don Sidlowski, the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation and the Grow North Regional Economic Development Corporation.
Everyone present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday agreed the lab will be invaluable to the students of Three Lakes, the engineering and manufacturing businesses in the area and the state as a whole.
"The Fab Lab will allow our students to use the Engineering Design Process as a tool for integrating the left analytical side of the brain as well as the creative right side of the brain to create a more holistic learner," said Dr. Steve Yahr, who will be working with the students in the lab.
"It will provide the students with technology as tools to express their creative side, just as musicians are provided instruments. In here, they're going to write the music. We have the instruments and they're going to create the music."
Instead of reading chapters in a textbook, completing a few worksheets, taking notes and then taking a test before moving on to the next lesson, students will be able to use the lab to dive into learning in a way that was never possible before. They will be able to take the controls of a milling machine, a plasma cutter, multiple 3D printers, laser engravers, a MicroScribe, vinyl cutters and more to turn their wildest dreams into reality.
"The students are given assignments to create projects of their own choosing. They conceive them, they design them and they execute them using the technology. As part of that assignment, they do a written or oral report," Yahr said.
"Their final assignment is to create a project of their own choosing using three of the pieces of technology. It's one thing to use the 3D printer to create a solid single object. It's another thing to start putting pieces together and get the interfaces right."
Yahr said the district is working closely with area businesses to create curriculum that will ensure students are ready for the next phase of their lives, whether that involves heading straight into the workforce or going on to some sort of post-secondary education.
"We've been going around doing listening sessions with our businesses asking what skills they are looking for in the next generation of employees," Yahr said.
"They're looking for people who understand the design/create process, people who have problem-solving skills - students who can run into a roadblock, back up, use the process and go forward again - people who aren't intimidated by technology and they're looking for students who recognize their ability to lead, to collaborate with other people and who have character."
The lab will also be open to the public. The details are still being worked out, but school officials said the public will soon be able to use the lab on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. This will allow burgeoning entrepreneurs and others to use top-of-the-line equipment to grow their own ideas.
After a tour of the school complex, the dignitaries stepped into the lab. Mouths dropped open and eyes came close to popping out of heads.
Small projects were made right before their eyes and after all the demonstrations were finished, the three state politicians couldn't do much more than express their astonishment at what Three Lakes and its business partners have accomplished.
"I am so delighted for this entire community," Kleefisch said. "We're really excited about what this means for the future. This doesn't just mean good stuff for the kids, this means really good stuff for the community because something like a Fab Lab attracts business to the area because you're not just educating young people, you're educating a workforce that can then be employed by local area businesses."
Kleefisch said Fab Labs are paramount to the economic future of the state.
"We think Fab Labs are fab. I know that sounds really dorky, but fabrication labs are the future of manufacturing, and to get young people with their hands in manufacturing as early as the ages that they're discussing in this curriculum is super exciting," she said. "We want young people to start thinking about their career and academic goals when they're as young as middle school. It's just that important that we get little kids starting to think about what kind of jobs they might want to take in Wisconsin. We want to keep all of our best and brightest right here in our wonderful state. A Fab Lab gets them thinking about that at a very young age."
Kleefisch said the Three Lakes lab will be a model for the rest of the state.
"We think that some of our terrific Fab Labs that we have at our technical colleges and at UW-Stout are a great model for other higher-learning institutions. This, too, should be a great model for other K-12 schools," Kleefisch said.
"This is a collaborative effort. You really need a community to rally behind an effort like this."
The lab likely would not have been built without the Fast Forward grants. As a result, Kleefisch said the state will be looking to continue that grant program in the future.
"If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. This school district should and can serve as an inspiration to every other school district," she said.
"(Fast Forward grants) are great ways to get a collaborative model working so that you train up the workforce of the future, and it is really fun to see when government dollars really do tremendous things to benefit the taxpayers and hard-working families."
"There are going to be future iterations of Wisconsin Fast Forward grants, but this is a great way to prove to people that this is worker training at its finest," she added.
Tiffany was the chairman of the committee that oversaw the creation of the grants.
"It was about a year ago that we were passing the legislation for the Fast Foward training grants and as the chair of the committee in the (Legislature) that heard those bills, we understand them as concepts. Today, we get to see it come to life," he said. "This is really valuable and ... we want to see real-world examples of how legislation that we pass is working and, boy, this is really a terrific example."
Swearingen said the lab will be a boon to the Northwoods.
"All I can say is wow. A year ago, maybe less than a year ago, the term Fab Lab was something that wasn't very commonly known and here we are a year later standing in one right in Three Lakes," he said. "This will have a positive economic impact on northern Wisconsin. ... Northern Wisconsin has always been thought of as a great place to live, a great place to retire, a great place to recreate, but we're also going to be known for economic development and this will certainly drive people that are thinking about relocating, whether it's in the manufacturing sector or the private sector, to the Northwoods. This is a win-win."
Perhaps no one was happier Wednesday than Sidlowski. After putting years of hard work into making the Fab Lab a reality, he was finally able to show off the finished project.
"It's a tremendous day for not only Three Lakes, but for our region," he said. "The overarching goal is to create an entirely new economic enterprise zone in northeast Wisconsin, the eight counties of northeast Wisconsin, with one of these labs in each county in the next three years to add another leg to the economic stool. It feels wonderful to have accomplished the first one, ... but this is just the start of the process."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at marcus@rivernewsonline.com.
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