Antigo Daily Journal: A high tech fabrication laboratory that is the result of a private-public partnership is taking shape at Antigo High School.

The district is in the midst of developing a fab lab, small-scale workshops that offer rural schools and communities equipment that can be used for digital fabrication.

Our goals are to have the room ready by late spring, Principal Tom Zamzow said. Future plans include bringing all fifth-grade students through the lab, making the room available for high school personalized learning projects, and offering evening and day time hours for members of the community.

Development of the lab dates to elate 2015, when the board of education heard a presentation from Don Sidlowski, founder of Northwoods Broadband & Economic Development Coalition.

Sidlowski, of Three Lakes, was in the middle of a three-year initiative to install one of the units in each of Wisconsin’s eight Grow North counties—Florence, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, Marinette, Oconto, Oneida and Vilas.

The idea was enthusiastically embraced by the board of education and the community. In the time since, there have been presentations, tours of other fab labs, and a room has been designated at the high school for the lab.

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