Fox Chapel Area's 'Fab Lab' brings high-tech manufacturing tools to younger students
In an age when many school districts are feeling the crunch of shrinking budgets and a resulting cut in electives, seniors at Fox Chapel Area School District have come up with a new way to bring modern manufacturing tools and lessons to other districts.
They call it the "Mobile Fab Lab" — though it looks more like a tiny house on wheels than a laboratory.
The "Fab" is short for fabrication, not fabulous, though the purpose of the lab is, in fact, fairly fabulous.
Built on a flat trailer base, the red-roofed structure is filled with modern machines: CNC machines, 3-D printers, laser engravers, vinyl cutters, computers and other hand and power tools.
It is self sufficient, coming complete with the wiring and a gas generator required to run the equipment.
Justin Papariello, Fox Chapel Area High School technology education teacher and Fab Lab manager, said the idea is quite simple: Since most students would never touch such equipment until high school or later, exposing them to it in advance can be an invaluable learning experience.
"We want to spark technological interest among younger students — not just in our school district but beyond.
"A lot of schools now only offer art and music electives, but this will expose students to something they might not see otherwise until they are older," Papariello said.
In the end, Papariello said the goal is to bring the lab to other districts and introduce as many kids in the Alle-Kiski Valley to the tools inside as possible.
That's why it's built the way it is, Papariello said. Most Mobile Fab Labs that he had seen were nothing more than a cargo trailer filled with tools.
The Fox Chapel Mobile Fab Lab was built to be a little more inviting.
"I'm pretty sure, and I've looked around, that we are the only Mobile Fab Lab that runs out of a tiny house," Papariello said. "We can now literally roll into a school's parking lot and set up a classroom with tables, tents, and the equipment and materials to build things."
That's exactly what the district did at the start of June at Mary Queen of Apostles in New Kensington, when they held their first test run.
It was deemed to be a success. A few dozen kids tried out the tools as the Fox Chapel seniors who built the lab worked out the kinks and tried to make sure the electricity used didn't overload the lab's circuits.
Terry Whitehead, who graduated from Fox Chapel Area High School this year, was the student responsible for wiring the Fab Lab. He said that he never had formal training in electrical work, but that his curiosity led him to teach himself using YouTube videos.
Whitehead said that he hopes the Fab Lab gives younger students the same sort of curiosity and desire to figure out how to do things on their own.
"I think it's great," he said. "These students get to learn about things that I never had a chance to look into when I was a kid."
The Mobile Fab Lab was made possible with grants from the Grable Foundation, a charity focused on helping students become contributing members of society. According to the foundations's website, it gave two grants of $30,000 to fund the lab's construction and equipment.
According to Superintendent Gene Freeman, the grant was sought with students across the Valley in mind.
"We believe that we are better together," he said, "which is why we authored this grant to impact Fox Chapel Area students as well as those in neighboring communities."
Megan Cicconi, district director of instructional and innovative leadership, said she expects the lab to start visiting area school districts starting in the fall.
Matthew Medsger is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4675, mmedsger@tribweb.com or via Twitter @matthew_medsger.
