Abstract
If not for stolen computers, the Digital Harbor Foundation may have been a very different learning environment, focused on computer technology more than making. As it turned out, the staff in the 5,000-square-foot space works with students from around the Baltimore area to develop their skills in technology and making. Several students from the space have been invited to the White House to showcase their knowledge and projects. Learning communities are developed intentionally through physical seating arrangements and layout of the learning spaces, and through the course material. In the middle and high school room, all students complete a 14-week basic maker course to familiarize them with the machines and processes of making. The space follows a “pay-what-you-can” model for all courses and materials used for the projects. A separate Nano Lab caters to younger students in 3rd to 5th grades. Digital Harbor Foundation believes in building students' problem-solving abilities and ability to self-direct their learning. This chapter explores the Digital Harbor Foundation.
Then through repetition, because you’re going to do that six or seven times as we go through different topics, by the end you start to feel you’ve journeyed into the unknown six or seven times and come out the other side unscathed and maybe even very successful. - Shawn Grimes
TopOrganization Background
Digital Harbor Foundation (DHF) briefly started as a technology center. In its original form, the space would have been used to teach mobile app and web development, and other types of coding to students in the South Baltimore area. Basically, the space would have been used as an educational program that involved a lot of time sitting in front of a computer, according to Shawn Grimes, the foundation’s executive director. The inauspicious beginning causing the transformation from a technology center to a makerspace happened like this:
About three months after we opened, we had someone break in and steal the limited number of laptops that we had. We had programs starting the next day, and we had been here all night with the police and the crime lab and everything else thinking, “What are we going to do when these kids get here?” We happened to have remembered some goofy project that involved an electric toothbrush and a pool noodle. That was an art bot, so we ran down to the local Dollar Tree, got all the supplies, came back, and we’re like, “Okay, this is time over for today, let’s just try and stretch it out through today and then we’ll figure out tomorrow, tonight.” It ended up they (the students) wanted to keep going back to that project over the next two weeks. Every day they did not want to move on from art bots, and that made us realize it doesn’t need to be technology focused. At that point it was like, it needs to be hands-on, maker-focused, and that was our awakening to the maker movement versus being a tech space, of being a makerspace.
From its inception in January of 2013, the 5,000-square-foot Digital Harbor Foundation space has been in the Federal Hill area of South Baltimore just south of the city center and near the Inner Harbor of the Patapsco River. The neighborhood is very affluent, and Grimes considers it part of South Baltimore more than the Federal Hill area, which makes it a little more generic and inviting to underserved youth. The physical space is connected to the Federal Hill Preparatory School through the school’s gym and was once a recreation center for the community. DHF can be accessed through the school’s gymnasium but also has a dedicated entrance so that visitors do not have to enter the school.
Prior to having a physical site, the Digital Harbor Foundation was a scholarship fund run by entrepreneurs around Baltimore City. Once the recreation centers were closed down in Baltimore, the Digital Harbor Foundation, with seed money and fundraising, moved from a scholarship fund to a physical space. Currently, the space is run as a 501(C(3)) non-profit and relies heavily on grant donations to fund the program.
The financial operation for the physical space is somewhat of an anomaly because Baltimore City Recreation and Parks owns the building and title, and leases it to the Baltimore City Schools, which permits Digital Harbor Foundation to operate in the space rent free under a memorandum of understanding. The arrangement is jokingly referred to as the Bermuda Triangle where responsibility goes to die. DHF serves students across Baltimore City from 88 different schools, including 51 private and 37 independent or home schools.
Inside the space, two maker areas are divided by a main hallway that eventually leads to the school. Immediately to the right as you walk in the main entrance is the Nano Lab, the smaller of the two spaces. It is designed for the Mini Makers program, catering to students in grades 3 to 5. While the original roots of the space as a recreation center are apparent, with industrial-sized concrete block construction and high ceilings, the Nano Lab has nice purple and white coloring along the wall in a block-like pattern, as shown in Figure 1. The Nano Lab contains a 3D printer farm consisting of five networked 3D printers and an oven for form molding.
Figure 1.
The Nano Lab 3D print farm
Key Terms in this Chapter
Makerettes: Female maker group at DHF.
Interactive Games Program: In this program, students create one-off arcade games using a cardboard component with a digital game.
SVG: Scalable vector graphics file used in 3D printing.
Digital Harbor Foundation: Out-of-school makerspace in Baltimore, Maryland.
MythBusters: A popular Discovery Channel television show.
Maker Foundations Course: Fourteen-week introductory course on making that meet twice a week for three hours a day.
Baltimore Federal Hill: Area of South Baltimore just south of the city center and near the Inner Harbor of the Patapsco River.
3D Printed Bubble Wand: A 3D printed object used to create bubbles.
Middle High School Room: DHF area for middle and high school students.
Mini Makers Program: DHF program catering to students in Grades 3 to 5.
Tinkering Toys: A maker program for Mini Makers at DHF.
Makey Makey: Hardware controller.
3D Assistance Lab: A lab area in DHF that provides printer repair for teachers and people in the community.
3D Print Farm: A collection of 3D printers.
Nano Lab: Area at DHF for students in Grades 3 to 5.
Anchor Night: DHF orientation night.