Even though the school year has ended we have plenty to keep us busy.  Our first Summer STEM Academy for middle school students has come to a close and it was a fantastic success.  Forty-six kids from around our region participated in 4 days of hands-on learning in three different areas of study; Drafting and CAD design, CNC and Laser design and operation and Metals Fabrication.  These kids worked with programs such as Solidworks, Bridge Designer, VCarve Pro and RDWorks.  Rather than go on and on about what they have been doing for the last week I thought you should see it for yourselves.

I want to thank a whole bunch of folks for making this STEM Academy such a success.  I hope I don't leave anybody out!
Superintendent Higgins for making this happen!
The entire District Office staff at GPHS for taking such good care of us (Tonya, Trisha, Sherry...)
Shopbot and Boss Laser for the amazing and DURABLE machines the students learned how to design for and use.
Brenda Bunge, Kirstie Christopherson and Brian Robin for the efforts put into the Revitalization Grant.
Everyone at Rogue Community College for their support and assistance.
Susan Essin and Woodcraft of Eugene for getting our tooling to us in time.
MasterBrand Cabinets for a bunch of material that the kids used in their projects.
Port Plastics for the help with the King ColorCore.


As mentioned, if I neglected to mention anybody I sincerely apologize.  It took a lot of people to make this work.

We just took delivery of a new Shopbot 5-axis CNC router!  This machine will add to our stable of CAM machines and provide our students with an incredible opportunity to explore the world of high-end machining processes.  We got her out of the crate yesterday morning and are expecting to get the electrical and pneumatics hooked up in the next week or so.