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…

RAFT’s Summer of Fun Includes Camps for Teachers & Kids!

Jun 2, 2016 |

Want to stoke the creative innovator in you and your students? Ever wonder what it takes to design an engaging project or design challenge? Interested in generating your own project based learning experiences but don’t know where to start? What does it mean to…

RAFT and the Community Support 10,000 Student Learning Experiences

May 31, 2016 | Comments Off

Together with help from the Santa Clara community, RAFT and Intel created 10,000 student experiences using hands-on learning kits. Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), Intel, and the Santa Clara community came together to build 1,000 educational kits to help support hands-on learning. The kits…

Student Coaching Works

May 19, 2016 |

By Elisha Burns, RAFT Fellow Older students helping the younger ones garden To increase student engagement, I say let the students take the lead. I have found that my students do their best work when they are put into a position of leadership. My…

Introducing Parents to STEAM

May 12, 2016 |

Rita Mercado, First Grade Teacher, Serendipity School The idea of having parents come into the classroom can be overwhelming at times, but it is an important step in having them gain an understanding of the learning that happens throughout the day that isn’t able…

RAFT Thanks Teachers During Teacher Appreciation Week

May 2, 2016 | Comments Off

The week of May 2nd, educators all over the country are thanked for their efforts in teaching. When it comes to student performance on reading and math tests, a teacher is estimated to have two to three times the impact of any other school…

Doing Laundry in Pre-K

Apr 27, 2016 |

By Ashley Estes, RAFT Fellow RAFT is one of the best places to find some amazing premade kits and learning tools. These kits are great and can be used across many grade levels. As a 1st grade teacher, I use them weekly in my…