Who we are . . .
We are Dayton’s STEAM Team! We are a group of enthusiastic high school students and community makers with a passion and a goal of integrating Students, Technologists, Entrepreneurs, Artisans & Makers into a community MakerSpace and FabLab! In April 2016 we set out on a 6-week competition for $20K + additional digital tool prizes through the CTE (“Career Technical Education”) Makeover Challenge. The challenge was to design, fund and build our dream of a community FabLab. Join us by making your matching pledge now!
Please select a reward now - Your matching pledge will only be collected if we reach our target and when we do our community will be strong enough to support every one of us.
Help spread the word tweet us, give a shout out on Instagram (@steamworkslabs) or follow us on meetup, like our Facebook and Linkedin pages or signup for our newsletter! (for more info on StartSomeGood from the founder) - Che'Aunna, Mohammad, Myron, Cahliel, Jujuan
Our Partners
The Dayton Early College Academy is an open enrollment charter school serving 7-12 graders and is an Ohio pioneer of the Bill and Melinda Gates’ Early College (EC) High School’s initiative. DECA took a simple concept-earning college credit while enrolled in high school changes the trajectory for students underrepresented in higher education-and developed it into a powerful model transforming outcomes for Dayton learners. The Early College (EC) High School model, in which high school students begin earning college credits in a small and supportive environment, coupled with a rigorous curriculum, is provided to increase the number of college graduates. DECA’s absolute focus remains that students attend college, prepared to graduate. Creating a 21st century workforce is embedded into educational philosophy at DECA. Though most DECA students are low-income, minority and first in their family to go to college, 79% are enrolled in or graduate from college. 82% will be first generation college students and 30% of these graduates elect to study a STEM related career field. With a poverty rate of approximately 72% for both DECA and DECA PREP, all students have established residence in the city of Dayton.
Belmont High School is a comprehensive high school offering college preparatory curricula. We are the most diverse high school in Dayton, as we proudly serve students from 17 countries of origin, who speak a combined 14 different languages. We have an active, productive Navy JROTC program. Belmont has an English as a Second Language program, as well as programs for special needs students.
STEAM Works Laboratories, is a local group of entrepreneurs, technologists and artists interested in making Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Arts & MakerSpaces (STEAM) accessible to the general public in the Dayton Ohio region. In the fall of 2015 a group of innovators from WPAFB/AFRL, local universities, entrepreneurs and community arts organizers committed to establishing the 1st Co-Use Digital Maker Space in downtown Dayton by focusing on leveraging the Tools, Talent & Teamwork resident in our community by mid 2016. In early 2016 with a generous donation of space by Jerri Stanard, the Founder of K12 Gallery & TEJAS (Teen Education & Joint Adult Studio) 
and STEAM Works Labs founder, CDR Sean Polete’s, vision and subsequent purchase, of ATK Integrated Systems Division’s divested CNC rapid prototyping tools our dream of establishing a community D.I.T. (Do It Together) Co-working FabLab was born.
What’s been accomplished so far . . .
We have secured space in a local creative neighborhood in the Oregon District and are in the processes of acquiring some key digital tools for our FabLab. Already, a combined FIRST Robotics Team (FRC) of 18 students (from DECA, Oakwood, and Chaminade Julienne Catholic High Schools) utilize our space in the evenings. The team works from 6-9 pm a few days a week with local mentors on construction and testing of their competition robot. This season the team has had great success in their rookie year winning the Rookie All Star in the Newton-Hopper division at the World Championships this May in St Louis, MO. (but don't just take our word for it hear from the team and Mayor Nan Whaley!)
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Aside from a talented team, one major aspect of running a successful community based MakerSpace is to develop community and corporate partnerships. These partnerships can include monetary donations, supplies/tools, mentor support, or a combination of the above. While STEAM Works’ budget is scalable in terms of the population served $2000-$5000/month, our immediate needs are for purchase of consumables/tooling for our CNC tools (3-axis vertical mill, powder based full color 3D printer, and laser cutter/engravers) and K12 infrastructure upgrades in order to support electrical, data and building code requirements for a 1500-6000 sq. ft. space. For further details visit our webpage at www.STEAMWorksLabs.com to signup or donate to our venture.
What we are planning to build . . .
For the past 6-weeks we have been engaged in the CTE Makeover Challenge designing our space and have just submitted our proposal on 22 May 2016! Our plan is to leverage and expand the existing STEAM Works Labs community resources and ask for your assistance and partnership in making our dream a reality by matching our $20K CTE Challenge Grant!
STEAM Works Labs will be a community space that engages both analytic and artistic sides of student’s brains, from Arts, Creativity & Design to Science, Technology & Entrepreneurship, fostering independent problem solving and exploration! Workshops provide resources for teachers to gain skills incorporating STEM into their classrooms, administrators a cost-efficient model for keeping curriculum relevant and enabling collaboration & camaraderie among staff & educators!
Across Drama, Music & History classes to High-Tech CTE Programs, Science, Engineering & Core Curriculum, our MakerSpace will invite community involvement into student’s learning process. Our unique model leverages public-private resources through a centralized partnership with Dayton Schools, Charter & Homeschool participants in a community arts & entrepreneurship setting. Our model addresses the varied needs of our community through facilitated offerings, distributed learning & a mobile FabLab that provides for Personal Digital Fabrication (embroidery, laser engraving, screen printing, 3D printing & electronics) projects & events around the greater Miami Valley Region.
Students Engagement:
- Activity areas reserved for age appropriate groups from K-12 (K-4, 5-8, 9-12) where projects can be safely facilitated (K12 Gallery & STEAM Works Labs are visually engaging spaces, kid friendly & respected throughout the community for inclusiveness and diversity)
- Provide opportunities for student leadership through mentor/apprenticeship with peers and train-the-trainer experiences around digital tools and projects
- Community space enabling positive role models from artisans, entrepreneur & local businesses through interactions not readily available in the confines of corporate school settings (learning to work with professionals and soft skills through community engagement opportunities)
- Open access will provide after school and enrichment programming through community resources and sponsored events/activities.
We plan on expanding our digital tool set with a 4’x8’ CNC wood router, vinyl cutter, micro-mill, electronics lab, computer workstations & software and consumables. Additionally, with our reach goal we plan to upgrade our existing infrastructure and construct a mobile FabLab to support our larger local community, this is where you come in!
Community Engagement:
Not only will this space serve our local students, it will enable local entrepreneurs, technologists, artisans and you to realize our collective potential. Being central to the downtown revitalization efforts in the Oregon District we hope to foster a vibrant “Maker Mindset” and strengthen Dayton’s history of innovation. The socio-economic benefits of community MakerSpaces prove themselves time and time again. Just think of all the cool inventions that have come out of the likes of NoiseBridge, TechShop & Artisans Asylum. . . inventions like Square, 3Doodler, the Pebble Watch & the MakerBot! Help create and support an indispensable piece of Dayton’s 21st century infrastructure. Another way you can help us serve our community is to provide feedback through our future planning survey!
Construction timeline:
Construction for the space will begin one week after Honoree announcement and involve 3 phases (see construction schedule below)
(Equipment & Programming) Phase 1 consists of equipment purchase, crowd funding campaign reach goals, and summer programming to prepare for Dayton’s 1st mini-Maker Faire, then World Maker Faire on 1 October and finally prepare for the 2017 academic year and public-private partnership community pilot project.
(Building Construction) Phase 2 will begin the building modifications and FabLab expansion for a 49 persons occupancy rating (our reach goal of A3, assembly occupancy of 250 persons will require $100-150K). Additionally, pending success of crowd funding reach goals campaign we will begin construction of a basic welding lab and 29’ mobile FabLab to further engage our community.
(UD Grant) Phase 3 culminates in a University of Dayton community outreach grant of $3K to construct maker work benches and help students build crowdfunding recipient rewards.
What’s our budget . . .
Our budget accounts for funding from the $20K CTE Makeover Challenge Grant and your matching support! Our reach goals are for additional building upgrades to support more of our community and where we include maker rewards from our team for your generous support. Join us and together we can make STEAM Works Labs a reality for downtown Dayton!
Why should you care, from the students . . .
"Our community needs a maker space. I can think of many times where I wanted to go and create something, but I was unable to do so because there was no public place for me to go to; my thoughts went nowhere because of this. I would like to create a space because there were none around". - Cahliel
"I believe that Dayton needs a place for the young inventors and scientists to play. They need somewhere for their ideas and ambition to prosper and grow, and the perfect space for this would be our current goal: a MakerSpace". – Myron
"Our MakerSpace is a place where inventors can share their knowledge and continue to grow and expand in their social setting. This could also help with the small maker companies with nowhere to go as well as creating jobs in the process. While we not only can learn, we will also discover and innovate". – Che’Aunna
If you haven’t seen our vision, please watch our video that we’ve put so much hard work into and see what we can do together for our community!
Risks to Completion
As in all projects there are risks, but we are confident from the outpouring of community support we have received so far that with your partnership we will start some good in Dayton!
In our efforts to provide a comprehensive set of digital tools we are seeking matching grants, member sponsorships or in-kind contributions. We further seek to set up an introductory meeting, in the near future, to discuss a potential partnership and media expose’ regarding re-utilization of digital manufacturing equipment for community STEAM initiatives. In return, the STEAM Works, 5811 FIRST Robotics Team and K12 / TEJAS will showcase your brand at competitions, Dayton mini-Maker Faire and World Maker Faire in July and October of 2016 and other outreach events. To set up a meeting with us please contact Sean directly at [email protected] for further details. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
