RAFT Blog, News, and Events

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…

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…

🏆 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…

STEAM in Action: RAFT Joins Synaptics for Bring Your Kids to Work Day

July 25, 2025

RAFT kicked off July with a hands-on, minds-on celebration of innovation by partnering with Synaptics for their Bring Your Kids to Work Day at the company’s San Jose campus. Synaptics employees brought their children to learn more about what their parents do and how STEM and STEAM skills power the technology all around us. RAFT…

Turn Daylight Savings Time into a Teachable Moment

Mar 5, 2018 |

Don’t lose sleep over this, but Daylight Savings Time (DST) is here! On March 11th it’s time to set your clocks forward and say goodbye to one hour of sleep! There’s no time to waste! Make this year’s Daylight Savings Time an engaging and…

Are you ready for Pi?

Feb 27, 2018 |

Time to get ready fer Pi Day at RAFT me hearties! Set yer compasses an’ sails fer FREE Pi Day activities on March 8th between 3:30 to 5:30 on th’ main poop deck (aye-aye in th’ “Kit Area”) at SJ RAFT! RAFT’s very own…

Orchard Students Turn RAFT Materials into Safer Wind Turbines for Birds

Feb 9, 2018 |

Ten third graders and twelve fourth graders in Kathleen Gould’s class at Orchard School District know to turn to RAFT when making creative design solutions! They’ve been on a 17-day Design Challenge journey studying how wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of birds each…

Celebrating Black History Month with RAFT’s Makerspace in a Box

Feb 2, 2018 |

In honor of Black History Month, each week RAFT would like to pay tribute to African-American inventors, scientists, and engineers. The list of African Americans who have invented a multitude of items in the course of their lives is endless! These inventions range from…

Introducing Sarah Slavin, New CEO of RAFT

Jan 29, 2018 | Comments Off

Sarah is excited to lead this outstanding organization into its next phase of innovation and impact. SAN JOSE, CA, January 30, 2018 – Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), a non-profit organization and leading provider of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) based hands-on learning,…

Use the Winter Olympics to engage your students

Jan 20, 2018 |

The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics are right around the corner! This worldwide event offers excellent opportunities to use the Olympics to inspire your students to learn about many mathematical concepts such as slope. How can the Olympics help students understand slope? Think of ski…