Kennedy High School in Richmond, California has been chosen by the Fab Foundation as the next public school system to develop a FabLab. FabLab Richmond will serve the K-12 Kennedy community through during school, after school, evening and weekend classes, technical training, and open labs, further developing the ability of Kennedy High School to function as a full service community school.
The development of FabLab Richmond will create completely new and unprecedented opportunities for students, teachers, and the broader community
Introduction
My name is Alex Fleming, I am a student with the 2014 Fab Academy. I am completely new to the world of digital fabrication, my work experience has mostly been in Warehouse Management. I've also done some work in Construction, as well as a brief encounter with electronics while working for a Power Supply manufacturer. I am very interested in the creative process of digital fabrication. Taking data and turning it into things, parallels the process of making dreams into realities, the abstract into the actual. The ability to combine different disciplines and skill sets in order to problem solve and reach a desired goal is something I believe needs to be taught and emphasized to the youth of today. My main goal that I hope to achieve by taking this course is to enter as a novice and come out a knowledgable skilled maker who can build "almost" anything.
Along with my former high school teacher, Eileen Walsh, I am part of a group that will be managing a K-12 FabLab at Kennedy High School in Richmond, California. Unfortunately the Lab is still in the process of being constructed which means I am without direct access to the machines in the FabLab inventory and do not have a local instructor to help troubleshoot any issues. Luckily I was able to get some assistance from a remote instructor, Mercedes Mane, and also located a facility near by in San Francisco called TechShop that had all the machines needed to complete this course.
