RAFT Blog, News, and Events

🏆 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…

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,…

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…

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…

Teachers Convene at RAFT for Back to School

Aug 15, 2017 | Comments Off

SAN JOSE, CA, August 15, 2017 — RAFT (Resource Area For Teaching) is enabling educators to make hands-on-learning possible at affordable prices in their classrooms. This year, while families are actively purchasing supplies for their children, RAFT has made lesson planning and replenishing classroom materials…

The “RAFTy” Teacher Checklist – 5 Things to do to Prepare for Back to School

Aug 7, 2017 |

Harvesting an Orchard of Innovative Makers! Orchard School District Teachers share 1st year RAFT Makerspace Experiences

Jun 22, 2017 |

Written by Peter Holley, Middle School Orchard teacher and this year’s Makerspace Cohort Lead Teacher The maker space at Orchard School came into being this year with a community build in October. Although our space is small, it is well put together and well…

RAFT Honors 25 Robert Brownlee 2017 Science Teacher of the Year Nominees

Jun 7, 2017 | Comments Off

For the 10th annual Robert Brownlee Science Teacher of the Year award, RAFT honored all 25 nominees at its Member Appreciation Party on June 3. This year’s nominees have a combined total of 285 years of teaching experience. RAFT applauds their dedication to bringing…

SuiteWorld17 Volunteers Prepare Hands-on STEM Learning Materials for 44,000 Students

Jun 1, 2017 | Comments Off

Exponential 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…

May 24, 2017 |

Are You Burned Out? – What To Do Now By Myesha Mebane, Science Department Chair at Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School It’s May and you may be experiencing “Burn Out”, what do you do now? It is too late to consider what…