Tech on the Block: A Summer 2024 Recap 

April/May 2026

In August of 2024, the CREeD Collective, alongside Metamorphosis, the University of Maryland-College Park, and a set of tenacious and innovative middle school girls, set out to tackle the year’s most discussed technology: AI. As researchers and community partner members, we explored how AI learning can center youths’ agency, youths’ creativity, and involve families with the support of local education. Our mentors developed leadership, project management, and teaching skills. Most importantly, the students and their families learned new technical skills/literacy, creative redesign skills, and how they can use their identities as a catalyst for innovation.

All of these takeaways were discovered through the program’s activities and workshops. Here are some of our favorite activities from the summer.

Teachable Machine – We had the girls explore the “inner workings of AI” through the tool Teachable Machine. During this acitivty, the girls trained an AI model to detect whether or not it was bieng shown a show. It was important for us to have the girls understand how these systems work in order to understand AI tools can affect them. 

Zine – The pruprose of this project was not just to learn about technology, but instead to analyze how technology can be leveraged to help our communities. We had the girls analyze their communities and the parts of them they would like to improve. From there, we had them imagine how they can use technology to solve their chosen issue. The girls document these ideas in their very own Zines.

Broadening Horizons – We did not want to introduce AI as a technology that was taking over the world, but rather a technology that could allow them, as individuals, to change the world. We made sure to show them all that they could experiment with and build in the future through field trips to innovative computer science and immersive media design labs. We also has panelists and guest speakers talk tot the girls and their families on how technology and innovation has shaped their lives.

This program had a profound impact on everyone who was a part of it. We connected as a community, expanded our horizons, and got to look at technology as a tool we shape with our identities; instead of it being a tool that shapes our identities.

The exciting news? Tech on the Block is coming back in Summer 2026! Stay tuned for more details about our upcoming program!

Want to read more? Enjoy this Article from UMD:  https://www.trails.umd.edu/news/building-trust-in-ai-one-block-at-a-time