TechTown prepares to open downtown Chattanooga facility

Staff photo by John RawlstonThe lobby of TechTown, which is scheduled to open June 29.
Staff photo by John RawlstonThe lobby of TechTown, which is scheduled to open June 29.

A new place to cultivate young creators of video, robotics and graphic design opens its doors next week in downtown Chattanooga, an airy space whose leaders are looking to evoke the sense and sensibilities of independent thinkers.

TechTown is expected to be the first of many hands-on instruction hubs for youths that will be built across the country, all rooted in technology and run without the formulaic format of classroom learning. TechTown doesn't consider itself a teaching institution in the classic sense; instead children and teenagers take responsibility for their own learning using the technological tools they get at TechTown.

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CampsDATES› June 21-July 31SUBJECT TRACKSAge 11-17› 2D/3D Design› Robotics/Circuitry› Film› Coding/Minecraft ModdingKilobytes, age 7-10› Basic design and codingCOST› $295 per week per camperLOCATION› 325 Market St.PHONE› 423-308-7730INFORMATION› https://gotechtown.com/summer2015

"We facilitate, we coach," said Cordell Carter II, TechTown Foundation's executive director and a former chief of staff for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

That philosophy hews to how TechTown Foundation, the nonprofit organization that keeps TechTown going, views youths and their capacity to grow intellectually and creatively. To sum it up: Kids learn best when they're allowed to explore, and that spirit of exploration, coupled with interactive, goal-driven and fun learning allows youngsters to excel in complex areas such as programming, 3D design and software development.

When doors open at 325 Market St. on June 27 for TechTown's first week in business, young innovators at summer camp will cruise corridors meant to stoke excitement and sit on chairs meant to stimulate both sides of their brains. In fact, the space should do the same for adults, even though it's built for a later generation.

Middle-school and high-school age kids can tell if they are being patronized, said architect Wayne Williams, a partner at Cogent Studios.

"You don't have to dumb things down," Williams said.

He designed the 23,000-foot project on the second floor of the Lifestyle Center keeping in mind that "kids are just as smart as grown ups; they just don't know as many words" a belief of children's author Dr. Seuss and one that Williams sees truth in.

"There's no raise-your-hand-to-go-to-the bathroom kind of environment here," Williams said. Instead, children have direct access to equipment, and there's interactivity among spaces, "visually creating that sense of openness and giving that sense of freedom that allows an ability to make your own choices," he said. Some walls have whiteboards for brainstorming, and certain chairs allow subtle side-to-side rocking to ping both sides of the mind. A "TechTalk" space has a cyclotron wall blinding white up, down and around, proving shadowless, such that backgrounds of all sorts can be incorporated into videos shot there.

It cost about $3.5 million to build out TechTown, said Naiara Cancel, who handles community outreach for the organization. A floor had to be constructed for much of it, space that before had opened over a pool that was part of Sportsbarn below. The remainder was sterile, squared-off offices, used mainly by doctors, Williams said. It took 90 days for Parks Construction to complete the work, ending in mid-June, he said. Access to TechTown is limited through a security system. "No one can enter unless they are supposed to be here," Cancel said.

TechTown expects 600 children to attend five weeks of technology-based summer camp starting June 29, Carter said. Enrollment is already above 500, he said. The weekly camps will be taught by staff "teachmasters" and area schoolteachers. "We want them to co-teach," Carter said. "They will figure out what will work best together." Carter hopes that the teachers, from Hamilton and Dade counties, will then adopt some of that knowledge for their own classrooms. Volunteers, along with apprentices who are mainly college interns, will staff the camps with them.

After camp ends, TechTown will move into its main curriculum, for which it has created its own model, "MyQuest," a learning system with 2,500 hours of content along three pathways: art and design; engineering such as robotics, integrated circuitry and 3D printing; and software such as web development and game making.

Founded by Paul Cummings, the founder of Chattanooga-based Woople, TechTown is expected to root in other locations across the nation, though it's unclear when. Cummings partnered with Todd Philips and John Foy last year to get TechTown off the ground. The trio are also founding partners of SwiftWing Ventures, the Chattanooga venture capital firm.

"Hopefully we're sustainable and thriving in Chattanooga," Carter said. "It's the model We are building the blueprint. The number one priority in next few months is Chattanooga."

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