About

Building more ways for kids to discover what they're capable of

How It Started

One Woodworker & his One-Car Garage

EHDW began when Founder, Sebastian Rizzi — a woodworker with a background in carpentry and the skilled trades — started teaching his son and nephew his own version of Shop Class during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He knew they had to do something real with their hands instead of another hour in front of a screen.

What started as informal lessons in a home garage became the first glimpse of what EHDW could become.

How We Grew

From a Garage to a Team Serving Thousands

Word spread the way it usually does with something real — parent to parent, teacher to teacher, school to school. What began in a one-car garage moved to a two-car garage, then a three-car garage, finally a first commercial workshop, then two, and then three, as more schools and families asked for the program.

Eventually, the growing team came together under one roof — a single facility built to support the programs, kits, and instructors that now reach 80+ schools and thousands of students across California.

A Shared Mission

Building Something Bigger, Together

As EHDW grew, Sebastian joined forces with his wife and co-founder, Kay, who brought years of experience building and scaling teams, systems, and operations at early-stage companies.

What began as Sebastian's way of sharing the skills that got him through his life grew into a shared belief: kids deserve more opportunities to discover what they're capable of.

Together with their team, they expanded this belief beyond skilled trades education to include hands-on experiences in design, engineering, agriculture, and food systems.

Where we're going

Building more ways for kids to discover what they're capable of

Kids spend a lot of time learning about the world. We believe they should have more opportunities to build, make, grow, fix, design, and experience how they can impact the world for themselves.

Elemental Hardware Enrichment creates hands-on learning experiences that introduce TK-8 students to practical skills, skilled trades, engineering, agriculture, the applied arts, and more. Through real tools, real materials, and meaningful experiences, students get the chance to explore interests and abilities earlier in their lives than they may have otherwise.

Sometimes it takes using a hand tool for the first time, building a circuit, solving an engineering problem, or growing food from seed to harvest to discover:

I'm good at this. I like this. I want to learn more.

Why It Matters

You can't discover what you love if you never get to try it

Traditional classrooms do an incredible amount to prepare students for future academic success. Preparing kids for the future also means giving them opportunities to discover what they enjoy, how they learn best, what they're capable of, and where those interests and talents could take them.

Working with your hands teaches more than how to build something. It challenges you to plan, measure, experiment, troubleshoot, adapt, persist, and try again...and sometimes again and again. Working with your hands turns abstract concepts into something that students can see, touch, smell, hear, test, and understand at a deeper level.

Hands-on learning exposes youth to interests, career pathways, and real-world experiences beyond the classroom that they may know very little about.

We've been building Elemental Hardware Enrichment to create more of those opportunities, and to make them accessible to students earlier in their lives.

“

Summer School Rocks because we got to build DIY projects like a lamp, bluetooth speaker and lots of other stuff that I didn't know how to do before.

6th grader at Blackstock Jr. High

How We Build It

We make what we teach

Elemental Hardware Enrichment doesn't just develop curriculum. We design, prototype, manufacture, test, package, and deliver the physical instructional materials that make our learning experiences possible.

This means educational design and physical product design happen together — with intention, so that students experience age-appropriate, real-world skill-building, and safe & practical lessons that expose them to interests, career pathways, and talents they may not have known they had.

“

These projects are the best lessons our students will work on and remember.

Grade 5 Teacher at Larsen Elementary

How It Works

Ways to bring our programs to your students

We partner with school districts, charter schools, community organizations, and parents to deliver high-quality, hands-on learning experiences — however fits your needs best.

Electives, ELO-P & After-School Programs

We'll help you implement DIY Builders, Makers, and Grow-It-Yourself classes in your electives, after-school, and out-of-school-time programs, either with instructors we provide, or professional development and curriculum for your existing staff.

Learn more

DIY Builders Project Kits

Purchase DIY Builders Woodworking & Electrical project kits by the class set. Choose from 40+ DIY projects, each with assembly supplies, printed & digital lesson plans, and video step-by-step instructions.

Explore DIY Builders project kits

Charter Schools

We work with charter schools as service and product vendors. For the 2026 - 2027 school year, we are actively offering services through Golden Valley, Blue Ridge Academy, and River Oaks Academy.

Learn more

Classes, Private Events, Field Trips & Camps

Book a DIY Builders, Makers, or Grow-It-Yourself class for a birthday party, private class, or reach out about hosting a Field Trip with us where students explore hands-on learning and career pathways in a real manufacturing business.

Browse classes

80+

School Partners

90%

Of Partners Return

50+

Hands-on Learning Experiences

4.79 / 5

Average Student Rating

Ready to Partner with Us?

Whether you're a school, district, community organization, or family, we'd love to help you get started.

Bring a Program to Your School Shop Kits & Classes