160 minority middle school students in Fort Worth, Texas are building fluency with IT by designing electronic gadgets and creating interactive programs.

The DesignIT Studios youth-based project creates four IT studio sites to work with 160 7th and 8th grade students. The four project sites—a central site at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, sites at each of two Boys and Girls Club branches, and a site at an area school—infuse digital technology and science, math, and engineering concepts into a creative art studio environment. Projects, springing from the children’s own cultural backgrounds and interests, incorporate commonplace materials with digital media to naturally create fluency in IT. Partners of this project include Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Fort Worth Independent School District, and TCU.