AFFOA + Beaver works Summer Institute

Increasing awareness of advanced fabrics as a possible career pathway has been an important goal of AFFOA’s EWD team and collaborates with a number of educational and workforce partners to engage high school audiences by partnering on hands-on educational experiences.

This summer, AFFOA collaborated with Beaver Works Summer Institute to expose young people to the advanced textile industry and various career pathways via interactive e-textile design and prototyping activities as part of an E-Textile Wearable Technology course in which AFFOA’s SeamLS Engineering curriculum was leveraged.

AFFOA and Beaver Works Summer Institute Highlights

The Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) four-week program engaged 20 high school students from across the country who gathered in person to participate in STEM challenges and work on teams to “tackle high-tech projects.”  Over the course of four weeks, BWSI teaching assistants leveraged AFFOA’s SeamLS digital curriculum to facilitate the E-Textile Wearable Technology course where students participated in workshops on:

• Electrical Engineering, Advanced Functional Fabric Manufacturing,
• Engineering Design with Prototyping, and
• Knitting Fundamentals.

Students learned about advanced functional fabrics, engineering, e-sewing, product design, and prototyping while creating and pitching their advanced fabric prototypes.  It allowed students to learn and apply new skills, such as sewing and creating circuits, to create fully functional prototypes that serve a need.

Some student  prototypes included:

• A temperature-sensing abdominal wound bandage that alerts users to potential infections in incisions after surgery. An increase in temperature could indicate an infection.
• A remedy for palmar hyperhidrosis (sweaty palms) which blocks sweat glands by passing a weak electrical current through the skin.
• A haptic feedback glove, a touch-sensing glove for astronauts to explore in space.

Looking Forward

AFFOA will continue expanding advanced fabric education efforts with new workforce and education partners.  As a part of this effort, AFFOA will also continue leveraging its SeamLS curriculum and increasing the capacity of potential partners to facilitate curriculum in schools and programs across the country.

AFFOA’s SeamLS curriculum and learning materials is accessible here and can be adapted to various high school STEAM programs and classroom settings. If you would like to bring a group of students to AFFOA for a tour or are interested in exploring Advanced Fabric experiential learning opportunities, contact us at curriculum@affoa.org.