Wish Book: Where does all the surplus stuff from tech companies go? To schools, thanks to RAFT

In classrooms around the Bay Area, old Adobe Acrobat DVDs, rubber bands and straws are leading rich second lives.

The donated materials, delivered to schools by the nonprofit RAFT and assembled by small hands, become playful science projects: tiny race cars that start and stop, climb and crash — proof of the power of physics.

“It’s a wonderful lab experience that comes to us, already put together,” said Gilbert Rodriquez, principal of Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in east San Jose...