Introducing The Digital Harbor Foundation

By Guest Contributor Margaret Roth

The Digital Harbor Foundation provides opportunities and connections for students and teachers not just to use, but to design and build technology. We provide connections between students, teachers, and technologists to promote the next generation of innovation and the next generation of innovators. We are interested in the measure of innovation and work to develop concepts that provide groundwork for new businesses and new ways of thinking about the world. This work supports real value at the local level while offering solutions that can be adapted globally.

During our summer MakerCamp, elementary students entering the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades will be working with MakerCorps Members taking on the role of Tech Coaches to develop 21st century skills at the Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center located in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore City. The summer programming will consist of four sessions — two weeks a piece — each covering a different topic set. The four sessions are titled BioChemical Gardening, Rocketry and Photography, Design and Engineering, and Salvage and Sculpt. Each session couples technical knowledge with design process, creating a unique blend of art, media, language, science, technology, engineering, and math, all while focusing on the development of the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. During each session, our Tech Coaches will be facilitating the work of a small group of students to complete hands-on maker projects and supervising the students during topic related field excursions.

The Digital Harbor Foundation will be providing our MakerCorps Members with leadership training, technology experience, instructional development opportunities, and Maryland steamed blue crabs. Additionally, they will be contributing to a program that is at the forefront of the EdTech movement and will thus be interacting with leading EdTech innovators and developers. We are most interested in what happens at the intersection of art, technology, and making, and in the power that comes from extending these opportunities to young people in our community. By working with the Digital Harbor Foundation, Maker Corps Members will have opportunities to become catalysts of change in the Baltimore ecosystem.