RAFT Blog, News, and Events

Featured Articles and News

RAFT’s AI Chatbot: A Smarter Way to Support Hands-On Learning

March 4, 2026

At RAFT, we’re always exploring new ways to help educators bring hands-on STEAM learning into the classroom. With support from the Cisco Foundation, RAFT launched an AI-enabled chatbot designed to help teachers confidently implement STEAM lessons and provide more personalized learning support for students. This tool acts like a digital teaching assistant, helping educators adapt…

Read More

A Legacy of Learning: The Guidry Foundation and RAFT’s Endowment Fund

January 26, 2026

For over three decades, RAFT has been fortunate to be supported by partners who believe deeply in the power of hands-on learning. Among them is The Mark & Carolyn Guidry Foundation, longtime champions of education, creativity, and opportunity for all students.  Founded in 1994, the Guidry Foundation was established by Mark and Carolyn Guidry to…

Read More

Annual Fundraiser Recap: RAFT to the Future of STEAM Education

September 25, 2025

On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, RAFT hosted its annual fundraising event: RAFT to the Future. Over 130 supporters were present at RAFT, which was transformed into a beautiful space for the special event for the night. That evening, we honored the individuals and organizations that have made a profound impact on RAFT and the education…

Read More

STEAM Dream Summer Camp 2025: A Season of Innovation, Discovery, and Fun

August 19, 2025

This August marks the exciting wrap-up of RAFT’s 2025 STEAM Dream Summer Camp and DreamBox season-our biggest yet! Over the course of eight action-packed weeks, we delivered more than 180 hours of hands-on STEAM programming, engaging TK-8 students from across the Bay Area in engineering challenges, storytelling adventures, and STEAM experimentation. With programs running across…

Read More

RAFT Hall of Fame | Class of 2020

Sep 23, 2020 | Comments Off on RAFT Hall of Fame | Class of 2020

Congratulations to our 2020 STEAM Teachers of the Year, RAFT Heroes, and RAFT Volunteer Award winners! Thank you for all you do for our students, our education community, and RAFT! STEAM Teachers of the Year Meredith JonesMission Park Elementary STEAM Teacher of the Year…

Read More

Welcome to Our New Website

Jul 26, 2020 | Comments Off on Welcome to Our New Website
New RAFT home page

When you visited www.raft.net you probably noticed a change. Surprise! We are happy to announce that RAFT has a new website!  2020 seems to be the year of changes, and RAFT is no exception. We are excited about this good change.  For the past…

Read More

A Message of Solidarity from RAFT

Jun 4, 2020 |

To our RAFT Community: As we all know, these are unprecedented times: a pandemic crisis infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands, a collapsing economy and unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, and now a new wave of social unrest resulting from another…

Read More

Support RAFT: Celebrating 25 years and Beyond!

Nov 21, 2019 |

Donate Here RAFT is approaching the end of its 25th year, and we have a lot to share with you! This past summer we completed a 2nd year of our Infinity STEAMED Summer School, where  50 students spent five weeks at RAFT learning about…

Read More

RAFT Welcomes New CEO, Jason Morrella

Sep 24, 2019 |

Jason Morrella, RAFT CEO SAN JOSE, CA, September 24, 2019 –  Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), a non-profit organization and leading provider of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) based hands-on learning for 25 years headquartered in San Jose, is delighted to announce…

Read More

RAFT’s Electromagnetism Workshop Sparks Inspiration and Creativity!

Jul 23, 2019 |

RAFT relaunched its workshop program this summer with several interesting classes covering a variety of topics such as classroom management, design challenge facilitation, laser engraving, preschool math and science, and several others.  The workshop held on Saturday July 20, 2019 was called Exploring Electromagnetism…

Read More