OLA Conference 2018

Tech Lab is a joint venture between West Linn High School and West Linn Public Library to help support STEM activities for teenagers in West Linn. The natural pairing of a high school library and a public library has led to an innovative after school experience hosted at WLHS. The knowledge and expertise of both libraries comes together for the benefit of students.

Tech Lab was brought about by our combined desire to expose teenagers to various technologies through a weekly drop in meeting time. Weekly meetings allow kids to build interest and help drive some of the enrollment in other tech programming activities at both the high school and the public library. Combining our resources (both in time and materials) has allowed us to scaffold out to more students than otherwise possible. Our goals and learning targets for Tech Lab are to create student capacity and interest with tech innovation, as a possible interest area for their future. Activities such as drone flying, computer programming, virtual reality (using a HTC VIVE), visiting industry and college campuses, and robotics were part of our scope during the 2016-2017 school year. Happily, we have just launched our second year!