SuiteWorld_2Exponential impact in Silicon Valley can be best demonstrated by when non-profit and for-profit organizations work together. Building on SuiteWorld17’s theme of “Next Starts Now,” Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) and Oracle + NetSuite collaborated on a volunteer activity that benefits the next generation of student innovators. Over 400 volunteers prepared materials that will provide 44,000 students with a hands-on STEM learning experience.

Participants packed activity kits that use upcycled materials to teach STEM concepts ranging from momentum and motion to molecules and polymers. By using everyday items, such as film canisters, rubber bands and tongue depressors and reimagining them into hands-on learning materials, RAFT creates activity kits that are affordable for educators to use in their classrooms. These activity kits bring science and math to life for students, sparking their sense of curiosity and inspiring a lifelong love of learning.

“Our partnership with corporations like Oracle + Netsuite allows RAFT to provide educators with the materials they need to spark a lifelong love of learning among their students,” said Kipp Lanman, CEO of RAFT. “Corporate volunteers assemble thousands of upcycled, affordable, hands-on activity kits each year for RAFT, allowing us to impact over 500,000 Bay Area students annually.”

As a result of our partnership with Oracle + NetSuite, “Next Starts Now”, Bay Area students from traditionally under-resourced schools with limited STEAM learning opportunities will now have access to hands-on learning experiences. The materials from SuiteWorld17 will be distributed to Bay Area schools and afterschool programs, including the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto and the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula.

 

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About RAFT – Resource Area For Teaching

RAFT – Resource Area For Teaching is a non-profit, which helps educators transform a child’s learning experience through hands on education to one that inspires the joy and discovery of learning. Founded in 1994, RAFT focuses on providing educators of all types—classroom teachers, after school educators, home-school educators, scout leaders, early care and education professionals—with effective, engaging, affordable hands-on learning resources aligned to national curriculum standards. RAFT, believes the best way to spark a love of learning for the next generation of thinkers, innovators, problem-solvers, and creators is through hands-on learning. RAFT supports some 7,000 educators in enriching and improving the education of more than 500,000 students young year.