Co-Curricular Programming

Through the IDEAWORKS Innovation Center, Digital Media Services provides a wide variety of workshops, excursions and experiential learning opportunities that reach a diverse student body outside the classroom. Below are a few of the subjects we incorporate into activities that also encourage students to explore and appreciate our surrounding environment.

• Visual Communication and Literacy	• Design Thinking
• Digital Storytelling	• 2D & 3D Design
• Media Production	• Electronics and Microcontrollers
• Creative Process	• Rapid Prototyping
• Time Management	• Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Although the students often product amazing work, the underlying goal is less about perfection, and more about developing fluency with the associated skills and an innovation mindset. We have found that through presenting challenges in a non-graded (although sometimes competitive) environment, students are later more comfortable venturing into related unknown territory. They expand the boundaries of their comfort zones in fun and engaging activities that don’t penalize for failed attempts, but rather embrace those experiences in the spirit of learning. With the confidence and skills they acquire, our students later apply these honed skills in their classes and ultimately in the workplace, where their adaptability and fluency allows them to focus on the problems to be solved and the messages to be communicated, and worry less about the methods they’ll utilize.

Below are a few of the past experiential learning excursions and trips offered through IDEAWORKS, ranging in duration from 90 minutes to 7 days.

Filmmaking Boot Camp (5 days)
Photography Boot Camp (5 days)
Maker Boot Camp (5 days)
Chesapeake Bay Photographers Sailing Adventure (Fall Break, 4 days)
Chester River Nature Photography (Various, 90 minutes to ½ day)
Southwest USA Photography Trip (Spring Break, 7 days)
Annapolis and Baltimore Photo Walk (Weekend, 1 day each)
New York City Photo Walk (Weekend, 2 days)

Co-Curricular Programming Highlights:

24 Hour Digital Video Challenge

Pre-Orientation Filmmaking and Photography Boot Camp

Light Painting Workshop

Spring Break Photography Trip (Southwest USA)