Three local school districts get Fab Lab grants
May 5—Three Chippewa Valley-area school districts have received $25,000 grants to fund local fabrication laboratory facilities, or "Fab Labs", Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. announced Wednesday.
The Cornell and Elk Mound school districts each received $25,000 grants; the Alma Center-Humbird Merrillan school district received $24,816.
Twenty-five other Wisconsin school districts also received Fab Lab grants this year, a total of $635,000.
The grant program requires matching funds from each district.
Fab labs are workshops for students equipped with manufacturing components like 3D printers, laser engravers, computer numerical control routers and plasma cutters, according to the WEDC.
The agency has invested around $3.4 million over the last six years in fab labs for school districts across the state, said Missy Hughes, WEDC secretary and CEO.
"The fab labs program engages students in science, math, and engineering, allowing them to create and invent all sorts of things from robots to 3D models," Evers said in a news release. "The skills learned in Wisconsin's fab labs can help prepare our kids for their future, including good-paying jobs in technology and manufacturing, which are critically important for our state's future and our economy."
For more information about Wisconsin's fab labs, the WEDC's website is wedc.org/fablabs.
