RAFT Blog, News, and Events

Featured Articles and News

🏆 RAFT Wins Double Gold in Bay Area Parent’s 2025 Best of the Best Awards!

July 29, 2025

RAFT is proud to announce that our STEAM Dream Summer Camp has been awarded Gold in two categories in Bay Area Parent Magazine’s 2025 Best of the Best Awards: 🥇 Best Day Camp – Silicon Valley 🥇 Best Science & Technology Camp – Silicon Valley This exciting recognition reflects the strength and impact of RAFT’s…

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Bringing Hands-On STEAM Learning to San Diego Educators

May 18, 2025

RAFT recently had the pleasure of participating in the San Diego STEAM Educators Conference at the University of San Diego from May 16-17. The event brought together hundreds of teachers from across the state committed to advancing STEAM education across Southern California. Nancy McIntyre, RAFT’s new Community Engagement Manager, represented our team at the conference,…

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From Honoree to Advocate: A STEAM Award’s Ripple Effect

May 14, 2025

At RAFT, we believe in celebrating educators who bring STEAM to life through hands-on learning. Our STEAM Teachers and Administrators of the Year Awards honor those who go above and beyond-and sometimes, that recognition inspires something even bigger. Just ask Bryan Williams, a past STEAM Teacher of the Year award recipient who later nominated another…

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DreamBox Impact Series: Milpitas Unified School District

April 1, 2025

Engaging EL and SPED Learners Through Hands-On STEAM For the past two summers, RAFT has partnered with Milpitas Unified School District to bring hands-on STEAM learning to the district’s Extended School Year (ESY) summer program. This past summer, 230 fourth- through sixth-grade Special Education (SPED) and English Learner (EL) students became environmental engineers-designing water filtration…

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Engineering Design Challenge: Leprechaun Trap

Apr 6, 2021 | Comments Off on Engineering Design Challenge: Leprechaun Trap

Students engage in engineering challenges created and facilitated by RAFT staff that take advantage of household materials and/or use RAFT supplied materials. Challenges can be live or asynchronous. RAFT will showcase student design solutions on our social media platforms. This is a great way…

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Lagunita STEAM Night Highlights

Apr 6, 2021 | Comments Off on Lagunita STEAM Night Highlights

The Virtual STEAM Night at Lagunita Elementary School (Salinas, CA) held on Thursday March 4, 2021 was a really great event! Nearly 100 families participated in a 1-hour STEAM lesson focused on RAFT’s Car on a Roll STEAM project kit. Students assembled the cars…

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RAFT Stands in Solidarity with the AAPI Community

Mar 24, 2021 | Comments Off on RAFT Stands in Solidarity with the AAPI Community

RAFT is heartbroken by the violent, racist attacks against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. The latest attacks are only the most recent examples of a horrifying increase in harassment and violence against the AAPI community, largely fueled by divisive, xenophobic sentiments.…

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Engineering Design Challenge: Cat Care

Mar 9, 2021 | Comments Off on Engineering Design Challenge: Cat Care

Students engage in engineering challenges created and facilitated by RAFT staff that take advantage of household materials and/or use RAFT supplied materials. Challenges can be live or asynchronous. RAFT will showcase student design solutions on our social media platforms. This is a great way…

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RAFT Spring Sale

Feb 22, 2021 | Comments Off on RAFT Spring Sale

Book Your Appointment today!

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Featured: Pratik’s Dream Playground Project

Jan 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Featured: Pratik’s Dream Playground Project

We love inspiring the next generation of innovators, problem solvers, and creators! Here’s a young engineer at work: Pratik Patel, a 2nd grader from the San Ramon Valley School District, took part in RAFT’s Dream Playground Design Challenge program. Pratik built a dream playground…

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