RAFT Announcements

RAFT was recently awarded Charity Navigator’s coveted 4-star rating for sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency. This is the third consecutive year we have received four out of a possible four stars.  It is an honor to have these bragging rights since only 9% of charities rated by Charity Navigator have received at least 3 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that RAFT outperforms most other charities in America! See our listing on Charity Navigator.

Thousands of educators are taking advantage of the week-long annual Back to School launch events at RAFT to shop for items to prepare their classrooms and to provide hands-on learning activities for their students at affordable prices. The best-selling RAFT Activity Kits this year include:

• Rollback Can – The Rollback Can provides an interesting example of energy transfer and storage for Grades 2-8.
• Puff Rocket – Hypothesize, experiment, collect data, and analyze forces and motion with a straw “rocket” and an easily made launcher. Grades K-12
• Roller Racer – Explore the application of simple machines and energy conversion and investigate how changes in stored energy can affect performance. Grades 2-12
• Gravity Defying Frog – Learn how to move an item’s center of gravity to create the illusion of a gravity defying frog! Grades K-8
• Car on a Roll – A clever way to demonstrate the transfer between potential energy and kinetic energy. Grades K-12
• Area Antics – Area Antics plays like the card game War, but with a new twist — instead of comparing numbers, students compare area! Grades 3-8
• Binary Dots – Learn to count in binary through simple addition! Grades 4-12
• Head to One Hundred – Find multiples & factors on a 100-grid board. See how the numbers relate to each other. Grades 4-8.
• Faux Stained Glass – Student artists of all ability levels can use this flexible technique to create dramatic effects. Grades K-12
• Foil Art – Explore an art technique where everyone – both children and adults – can be successful. Grades K-6.
• Bread Board Circuit – Provide students with opportunities to create a basic circuit, build a portable version, and explore parallel and series circuits! Grades 4-12

Make this the year to try one or more hands-on teaching lessons in your classroom. Join the myRAFT hands-on teaching community today for online mentoring and support.

Through the generosity of the San Mateo County Arts Commission, thirty-five San Mateo County schools have been selected, and will each receive a basket of art materials valued at $80.00. Schools receiving these baskets will be able to provide students with activities in art that they may not have had prior to the San Mateo County Arts Commission’s generous donation and partnership with RAFT.

RAFT has a strong offering of hands-on teaching Math and Science Kits and Idea sheets. This partnership and distribution of art baskets shows RAFT’s efforts to support “STEAM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) — the integration of art with math and art with science and more –to improve student engagement and to utilize visual learning to convey concepts in a way that helps students “get it”.

Our thanks to the San Mateo County Arts Commission for making this possible!

Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day, a day set aside to acknowledge the hard work and the significant impact you, as educators, make in the lives of your students.

We all have stories of that one teacher that made such a difference in our lives. And maybe that’s why you’re an educator. Because you know that the work of teaching our children is so important. It’s not always easy, especially given today’s challenges, but it is often rewarding.

At RAFT, our mission for almost 20 years has been to support teachers and educators inside the classroom and in after school, and out of school youth programs. For RAFT, every single day is Teacher Appreciation Day. We honor and thank you for all you do to make a difference in the lives of our children!

We lost a dear friend and long-time supporter of RAFT this week. Mike Hackworth, active with various philanthropic efforts in the community, passed away on April 21st. Mike, who served on RAFT’s Board Marketing Committee as well as on RAFT’s Advisory Board, was a staunch supporter of quality hands-on education for our youth. We will miss Mike’s enthusiasm, sage advice and generous spirit. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to his wife Joan, and to his family and friends.

Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) recently recognized six science educators whose students use recycled materials in creative and resourceful ways and/or used hands-on learning elements in their project at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science & Technology Championship (SSVSTC).

Tini Raman of Challenger School in Middlefield Palo Alto, Sumizah Qureshi from Granada Islamic School, Matt Karakas, from Magnolia Science Academy in Santa Clara, Pritha Roy from Merryhill Schools in Milpitas, Lindon Richards from Milpitas Christian School and Dough Core from Springer school were given one year free RAFT membership in appreciation and encouragement for using hands-on methods of teaching in their classrooms…Read more

Affordable and accessible RAFT (Resource Area For Teaching) materials help Stanford University student make educational hands on Activity Kits to effectively engage children with special needs.

Krystal Le, a sophomore at Stanford University recently worked with RAFT to develop new hands-on educational activity kits for kids with autism. The project – ‘Spin a Story’, targeted building RAFT Activity Kits to help stimulate the student’s tactile senses and effectively communicate their needs. Le’s inspiration for this project came from her experiences with her younger autistic brother. “My brother is incredibly brilliant, but he has difficulty communicating even basic thoughts,” she said. “Thus, coming to Stanford, I knew I really wanted to design a product that would help him and children facing similar challenges, express themselves. Working on a project with RAFT has been a wonderful first step toward realizing that dream.” Please click here to read more.

March is Science Month at RAFT. Stock up on RAFT’s fun and engaging science kits, or create your own with kit supplies at RAFT’s online store. During the month of March, science products are discounted 5-15%. Online only. >>Click here to shop<<

Can’t make it to the White House Science Fair today? Here are some great hands on ideas for your own local Science Fair!

Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) has over 600 Idea Sheets with more than 400 focused on Sciences – Life Science, Earth/Space Science and Physical Science. These idea sheets can lead to a myriad of possibilities! Here are a few RAFT hands on Science activity ideas that you can even conduct as a classroom science project! Please click here for more!