A new way learning center is coming to Jackson County, it’s called Fab Lab, or Fabrication Laboratory, and it gives students experience working with tools, machinery and technology used today in STEM-related industries and help them develop the deep critical skills necessary for being innovators in the future.
The Fab Foundation is a nonprofit that is dedicated to increasing access for communities they serve to STEM learning. The lab will be located in Vancleave, Mississippi at 12004 Highway 57.
The facility will be available to local students, teachers, and community members.
The lab comes to Mississippi through a partnership with Chevron who have invested nearly $300 million in education worldwide since 2013. Because of Chevron’s dependence on an educated workforce that are trained in STEM education the thought the partnership with Fab Lab would be a benefit to the communities they operate in.
“If we get kids turned on to STEM projects the work force will certainly benefit from that, not only that the entrepreneurship available to our grown ups. The community will be able to come in at night and on the weekends to work in our labs,” said Superintendent of Jackson County schools, Dr. Barry Amaker.
At the facility in Jackson County they will offer laser cutters which engrave, etch, and cut through a variety of materials, 3D printers that create solid models out of digital creations, CNC Routers to cut, drill, carve and machine wood plastic, aluminum and other materials. They will also feature milling machines and a computer lab outfitted with design software.
“The main focus right now will be in Jackson County but we will also be reaching out to the surrounding districts as well, once we really start getting it going,” said Dr. Amaker.
Find out more about the Fab Foundation HERE.
