PEF Innovation Hub

Public Education Forward would like to congratulate the student team from Normal Park Museum Magnet Lower School for their innovative project, NPMM Magnets, in this year’s PEF Design Challenge: Great Toy Challenge! 🎉

Fabricated in Normal Park Lower’s VW eLab, NPMM Magnets showcased impressive creativity, strong collaboration, and advanced 3D printing techniques that brought the students’ original design to life in a polished and engaging way.

This project is a wonderful example of the meaningful learning happening in VW eLabs, where students develop technical skills, teamwork, creativity, and problem solving through authentic hands-on experiences. Congratulations as well to VW eLab Specialist Carolyn Langston for helping foster the kind of innovative learning environment where projects like this can thrive!

Public Education Forward would like to congratulate STEM School Chattanooga’s 11th grade team, Dawson, Mason, June, and Micah, for winning this year’s PEF Design Challenge: Great Toy Challenge!

Designed through a meaningful partnership with Siskin Children’s Institute, “The Busiest Board” is a thoughtful adaptive toy created to support children with special needs through interactive sensory play. Fabricated in STEM School's VW eLab, the project combined coding, wiring, 3D printing, and digital fabrication to create an engaging and accessible learning tool designed with real users in mind.

This project is a powerful example of the authentic, community-connected learning experiences happening in VW eLabs, where students use technical skills, creativity, empathy, and problem solving to design meaningful solutions for others. Congratulations as well to VW eLab Specialist Anna Wineland for helping create the kind of innovative learning environment where impactful projects like this can come to life!

Public Education Forward would like to congratulate this year’s middle school PEF Design Challenge Winner, Harrison Withers from Center for Creative Arts!

Harrison designed an original toy called CreateABot, a completely 3D printed toy with modular parts that can be rearranged into different configurations for active play. His project stood out for its creativity, innovation, engineering, and incredible custom packaging, all of which were digitally fabricated in CCA’s VW eLab.

This project is such a powerful example of the meaningful learning experiences happening in VW eLabs across our region, where students are developing creativity, problem solving, technical skills, and design thinking through authentic hands-on work. A huge congratulations as well to VW eLab Specialist Justin Black for helping create the kind of learning environment where projects like this can come to life!

Join us for FREE Drones After Dark at PEF with special guest facilitator !

Join us for a TSIN Innovative Educator Workshop: Drones After Dark. May 7, 7-9 pm at PEF. Register for FREE at bit.ly/PEFdrones

Teachers, join us for fun online PD this summer!
https://forms.microsoft.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hqzf9vHe30GTFRjze5QdeCdFp-geVWJBs-d__L_YVHVUM1pDS1BXV0wzTFpPVjVNTko4UzJIR0oyTS4u&origin=QRCode

K-12 educators: Don’t miss a FREE workshop on climate change with Michael Lowry from NCSE! Equip your students with tools for our future. Sept 18, 1:00-3:30 PM. Register at http://bit.ly/IEW2425
Thanks to Public Education Foundation and TSIN for providing these opportunities for FREE!

Help students explore climate change solutions with NCSE's Michael Lowry on 9/18! Learn innovative ways to teach climate science. Free for all K-12 educators. Sign up here 👉 http://bit.ly/IEW2425
to Public Education Foundation and TSIN for providing these workshops for FREE.

Join Michael Lowry (NCSE Teacher Ambassador) on Sept 18 for an interactive workshop on climate change solutions! Perfect for K-12 educators. Register now at http://bit.ly/IEW2425. Thanks to Public Education Foundation and TSIN for providing these workshops for FREE.

The 2024 Chattanooga Fab Institute sold out in record time! 175 educators coming in from 17 states to gain first-hand experience in VW eLabs! Can’t make it this year? Follow along at to stay connected.