State to award $500,000 in school fab lab grants

Twenty more Wisconsin school districts could soon be setting up digital fabrication laboratories, known as fab labs, aimed at introducing students to skills used in advanced manufacturing.

The labs use computerized tools, such as 3-D printers and lasers, to take ideas from a sketch pad to a prototype and then to a finished product. With advances in technology, the equipment has become easier to use and less expensive.

A handful of Wisconsin public schools and technical colleges created the labs a few years ago and more are establishing them with the help of Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. grants.

About 20 WEDC fab lab grants are expected to be announced this spring from 60 school district applicants, the agency said Thursday, following 25 grants awarded last year.

The maximum grant for an individual school district is $25,000, while two or more districts that are forming consortia can receive up to $50,000.

“Spreading the wealth around the state is a good thing to do,” said Don Sidlowski, who helped establish a fab lab in schools in Three Lakes and other communities.

At the highest level, the labs encourage the exchange of ideas between people from a wide variety of backgrounds around the world. Shepherds in Norway have used a fab lab to create a system for tracking sheep and reindeer using mobile phones, while a lab in Boston helped children make jewelry from scrap metal.

A lab at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, using a 3-D printer, helped build a prosthetic hand for a 6-year-old girl from Pennsylvania.

With 3-D printing, objects can be replicated by laying down successive, ultrathin sheets of plastic or other materials from a computer drawing.

The Fox Valley Tech lab has spawned numerous inventions including specialized children’s eyewear, a fishing-rod holder for people with grip issues and a device that helps people with disabilities open doors.

Small and medium-size manufacturers use the fab lab at University of WisconsinStout for prototyping. And the Three Lakes lab has prepared high school students for advanced manufacturing jobs.

“Industry should have a vested interest in what happens with this program because it’s producing the kinds of workers they need,” Sidlowski said.

“The No. 1 complaint we hear is that businesses have jobs but no one to fill them,” he added.

Three Lakes says it was the first in the state to offer fab lab skills from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“It’s about changing the way we deliver instruction. We get students engaged with project-based learning, and we are training them to think critically and to use their imagination,” said George Karling, superintendent of the Three Lakes School District.

Sometimes fab labs are for fun as well as hands-on learning.

“As we got into this, we realized it was absolutely necessary” for all grades, Karling said, adding that a first-grade student digitized toy dinosaurs to make pieces for his chess board.

Three Lakes has placed high school graduates into technical jobs at area manufacturers.

“One company said they wanted five of our students … and five more in six months,” Karling said.

Last May, the WEDC awarded fab lab grants totaling $600,000. It’s allocating another $500,000 this year through 20 grants.

The winners are expected to be announced in the next eight weeks, with applicants evaluated on criteria such as long-range planning and business and community partnerships.

“We believe that collaboration among school districts is an important facet of this program, which is why in this year’s round of grants we are giving two or more districts the ability to create consortia to share their resources and knowledge,” said Mark Maley, WEDC communications director.

“In addition, we are working with UW-Stout to provide assistance and guidelines on best practices to fab labs around the state,” Maley said.

In this round of funding, WEDC is requiring the schools to make their labs accessible to the public so they can offer training and workshops in after-school hours.

The school districts must match the WEDC funding through cash or in-kind support.

Sidlowski said schools are expected to establish advisory councils with local businesses, including manufacturers.

“The state has a role in getting this started, but we are calling on industry to step up to the plate as well,” he said.