History of Sherwood Tech

we’re Sherwood Tech, a federally registered 501(c)(3) born
out of the Bowmen Fab Lab technology group of the Sherwood School District. Our mission is to
provide technology, supplies, and curriculum opportunities to all four Sherwood Elementary
Schools, two Sherwood Middle Schools, and Sherwood High School. In short, we aim to provide
all children in Sherwood with the best in STEM-based educational opportunities.
History
A little bit of background.  About 20 years ago, I started organizing Lego Robotics teams within the district for local competitions (eg, robot kits, materials, team registration).  This is how I first met Debbie.  She was using the robots in her classroom.  Working with Terell Smith at the high school, the district got a TechStart grant where they paid teacher stipends to be the point-of-contact at the school (similar to youth sports). Eventually, we had so many teams that we were paying >$5K in registration fees annually.  At this point, we decided to move the competitions in-house, reduce the student registration fees by 70% and use the events as fundraisers for the SHS CTE classes.  As the stipend grant dried up, some parents and I started a non-profit to continue offering our local competitions plus add after-school/evening STEM classes and one-time events (eg. game coding, Lego Engineering, rockets, code nights).  We offered classes every trimester (~120 kids each term) with a big public event at the end of the term.  Our group supplied the materials, organized parent volunteers/student helpers, while the district helped with rooms and a point-of-contact at each school.  We also helped fund equipment purchases for SMS/SHS CTE classes.  Basically, we were trying to emulate the sports/band boosters...but for CTE classes.  We were talking about expanding into the science/math classes.....and then the pandemic hit.

Contact Information
email: [email protected]

Director
Eric Campbell 
STEM Class Coordinator
Bryan Wallace
STEM Competition Coordinator
Saranya Durairajan

Sherwood Tech Board 
Eric Campbell
​Steve Everley
Bryan Wallace 
Bala Sethuraman