LOS ANGELES, CA – The newly minted Maker Space at the Science Academy STEM Magnet is offering students innovative tools to explore their interests. 

  • Maker Space opens at Science Academy STEM Magnet
  • Provides innovative tools for students
  • Equipped with any tech the kids ask for

It takes Dai’Asha Davis two hours on a bus to get from her home in Inglewood to her school in North Hollywood. Once she arrives at the school, Dai’Asha gears up for motion capture. The 14-year-old wants to be a surgeon and envisions a way this could help.

“If possible I would like to be able to do surgeon similars within motion capture of VR," said Davis.

If she can think it up, Principal Carlos Lauchu will find a way to make it happen. He has stocked the Maker Space with technology the students asked for; like the 3-D printer Zyg Ramsey is using to build a robotic arm “that you can control with code and stuff," he says.

Ramsey wants to invent an inexpensive prosthetic hand that can be controlled with muscle signals up high in the arm. 

The door to the maker space is always open. Principal Lauchu says this is big part of the vision he and his colleague Jodi Huff had when they first dreamed up the science academy 18 years ago. 

“We wanted the sky to be the limit for our kids and this is the beginning of it," said Lauchu. "Every time I think they are reaching their potential, they go above and beyond that.”

The Science Academy STEM magnet has been the highest-scoring middle school in the state for two years running.  Part of that is because they track student progress closely.

“Any student that falls below 80 percent, we give them the help they need to get back up to where they should be,” said Lachu.

“I’ve been in schools that told me you’re in seventh grade, you’re going to do seventh grade math," said Davis. "Here at Science Academy, they match me on my level.” 

The school hopes to give students the support and the space they need to achieve virtually any goal they set their sights on.