Creative. Inventive.  Innovative.

Installed just this year, the Fabrication Lab (or “Fab Lab,” for short) is one of the newest additions to Apple Valley High School.  A grant from the U.S Department of Labor made the lab possible. Currently, the lab is run by four advisors: Mr. Lynch, Mr. Blaine, Mr. Lee and Mr. Hubbard.

The Fab Lab is a part of the STEM program (science, technology, engineering and math), created to address those same focus areas. The program supports and enhances a hands-on learning style.

Physics teacher and Fab Lab advisor Mr. Lee says, “What’s really cool about the Fab Lab is it hooks in all different kinds of learners, all different kinds of learning styles and all different kinds of disciplines. It’s not just for people that like science and math; it’s also people that like art, business, social studies and English.”

Each student will eventually get to experience the Fab Lab. The possibilities are endless when it comes to enhancing a student’s learning. Anything can be created from a life-sized skeleton to the Globe Theatre.

Students can experience firsthand what the Fab Lab is like.  A class called ‘Fab Lab Essentials’ is currently offered third and fourth hour. In the class, students work on projects while learning how to use the different components of the lab.

Students who have completed the Essentials class can choose to expand their knowledge with a second course, which will teach students how to make just about anything. The second course won’t be taught until the spring trimester.

The Fab Lab staff plans to expand the lab in the future. The process is starting out slowly to expand into a space anyone can use.

“Fab Labs are never finished so what we have done so far is open it to students, we’re going to open it up to the staff and the school and the last piece-…have two classes through community ed,” Lee said. “One is going to be done in February  and the other is going to be  run in April of next year.”

With the Fab Lab comes doors of opportunity. For students taking any of the classes, a certification can be earned.

Lee said, “We’ve actually talked to the students in the classes to see if some of them want to be experts and then be a teacher’s assistant…They’d get a certification to use, go to an employer and say I’ve already learned how to use these pieces of equipment, helped other people learn it, so you can hire me.”

With this great new addition to Apple Valley High School, within it there seems to be something for each student. The lab will enhance learning, but it will make learning fun. I think that it’s safe to say that the fab lab will help students successfully fabricate their future.