Circuit design studio at IDEA HS

Thank you all for your support! All the items I needed to start the school year have been purchased!!

I will keep this GoFundMe campaign and Amazon wish list open for the remainder of the 2017-18 school year. If you would like to help, you can donate here or click the link below to see what supplies we still need.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CLASS WISH LIST ON AMAZON

My name is Peter Rutter, and I am a teacher at IDEA High School in Tacoma, WA. IDEA stands for industrial design, engineering, and art, and we use project-based learning to teach students how to apply knowledge & skill to solve meaningful problems.


I am building a classroom and curriculum to teach most Algebra standards using the discipline of electrical engineering. Students will learn to use mathematics to model and solve problems as they design and build circuits. Additionally, I will teach audio circuit design and business courses, and provide opportunites for student interns to work with VFE to further develop their graphic/web/circuit design skills.
The school and my business, VFE Pedals, have invested heavily to make this unique approach to teaching mathematics possible. By leveraging the resources of both the school and my business, students and student interns will have access to $75,000+ worth of professional equipment and materials.

Here's what we have done so far:

- I moved VFE Pedals' shop into the school (adjacent to the classroom), and redesigned the layout and purchased more equipment to allow several students at a time to work and colloborate in the VFE shop.

- I discontinued VFE's entire product line, and rebooted with a simpler line that allowed me to focus more time on teaching.

- In IDEA's 1st year, VFE Pedals worked with students to design a new logo and website. Student interns also designed and launch a small production run of their own guitar pedal.

- IDEA has purchased soldering irons, breadboards, multimeters, signal generators, and more to allow students to learn the basics of circuit design and assembly.

- IDEA is purchasing Othermill Pro, a precision CNC machine that will allow students to mill custom circuit board designs immediately (rather than paying $$$ and waiting 2 weeks).

- I am providing my CTE courses access to VFE's $30,000 UV printer, so they can produce professional quality products and materials.

- Using some of the funds raised here, I purchased professional workbench tables. These will be used to create a CAD design studio and component library for student projects.

The grid below shows some of the equipment we have purchased for my classroom and circuit design studio.

Here's a simple floorplan for the new classroom:
A generous parent of one of my student interns donated the funds to purchase a Microsoft Surface Studio to be the center of CAD design within my audio circuit design CTE course, as well as graphic design done from student interns.

In order to maintain equipment and purchase components as they get used up, the proceeds from purchases of VFE T-shirts will fund the ongoing costs of my courses.

Thank you for your support of high school education. Please help me by sharing this campaign with your friends!

Take a tour of the VFE shop and the classroom I am building at IDEA High School in Tacoma! Click the message icon next to my name (located until the "Donate Now" button) to setup a tour.

Here's a video tour for those who can't come see the shop in person.