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NÜDELLING


Designing for Inclusive Play

17/5/2021

4 Comments

 
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By Marcus Veerman, Founder Playground Ideas and co-creator of Nüdel Kart 
(References include the Playground Ideas “Inclusive” Manual and “Humanity and Inclusion” Organisation) 


I’ve been designing playgrounds for over a decade, and one of the biggest challenges is designing spaces that are all inclusive and truly all abilities. This means more than just simplistic solutions like wheelchair ramps, but truly creating spaces for all children to play and learn together in a safe environment that still challenges each and every person regardless of their ability both physically, cognitively, socially or otherwise.        
     
While they are often used interchangeably, “Inclusive Design” is different from “Handicapped-Accessible Designed”. The latter begins by looking at a child’s disability first and designing spaces to compensate for that challenge. While this perspective is often well-intentioned, it can result in playgrounds that are exclusively designed for children with limited abilities, (particularly physical), and in doing so can further ostracise children with disabilities from their peers. In addition, when design only seeks to compensate for disability to allow them to engage in “normal“ activity, it ignores children’s unique strengths and misses the opportunity to create a space that can encourage children to engage in challenging, even reasonably risky activities that build resilience, mastery, and a positive image of self. 
A good example of this type of thinking is children who have lagging skills that cannot be physically seen such as children on the spectrum. These children are not disabled in the traditional sense and in fact often have incredible strengths in certain areas, and we need to consider the whole of the child if we are going to design well. 

​So how do you ensure a play space is inclusive?        
Design that is inclusive begins by first looking at children’s strengths, instead of their disabilities being front of stage. All children have strengths and by taking into consideration the range of different strengths within a community, you’ll be better equipped to design a unique, engaging, safe, beautiful and of course, fun playground that brings children together, instead of dividing them by ability. By designing for inclusion, and beginning from a perspective of “strengths,” you can create play spaces that are designed with everyone in mind and that challenge and support children with a wide range of abilities. For example, a blind child’s strengths are their heightened sense of touch, hearing and smell. How could these senses be better used in a playground for both sighted and non-sighted children? 
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Children of different ages have widely varying abilities. For example, a ladder or fire-person's pole that is used with ease by a 7 year old, may be a neck-breaking deathtrap to a toddler. So regardless of whether you have children with ‘disability’ in your community, all play spaces have to deal with children whose abilities are very different.

It is human instinct to try and categorise and differentiate. This can be helpful in some areas of our life, but when we categorise people by ability, it can lead to isolation and exclusion – and this can manifest as a bad playground design. A playground with a handicap-accessible slide and a regular slide conforms to a bias we have to categorise people of different abilities and separate them.  It is easier to build two slides than it is to think of a way to build a new form of slide that allows children of all abilities to play together on the same playground equipment. We want to look for new ways that children of different abilities can intersect with each other. When a feature has different challenges associated with it and a range of difficulty, children with different levels of ability will interact with it and each other.

​When designing for inclusive play, consider how you might create spaces of “intersection” on the playground. “Intersections” create opportunities for children of all abilities to interact and play together.

As a result of considering all of the above points, In 2018, I started to develop a new playground and learning concept called the Nüdel Kart. I felt like there was something missing and one of the key considerations in this journey was something that was truly all abilities as well as being non-gendered and open to children from any cultural background. 

From the very initial sketches, the Nüdel Kart design focused on children’s strengths and allowed them to be challenged and develop at their own pace. How? Well, when children are using a Nüdel Kart, quite simply they build the playground on the fly and they can experiment with different designs as they go, to create something that works with their strengths. If they try something and it doesn’t work then they can simply deconstruct it and start over, and through this process they are learning so many critical skills with their peers. Skills like empathy,  as you need to create a space that works for everyone if you want to keep playing with them, you also learn negotiation as different people desire different levels of risk or want different rules in the game. It is these foundational skills which we know are so important to navigating life towards success regardless of what area of life you choose to specialise in and what ever abilities you have.

In a nutshell, Nüdel Kart is a deconstructable, mobile play cart that can transform any space into a creative, loose parts, play space for 3-12 year olds.

​✓ STEM and 21st Century skills
✓ Self regulation and growth mindset
✓ Primary School and Early Learning
✓ Creative, unstructured play
✓ Playground equipment extension
✓ Indoor and outdoor
​✓​ Durable, kid-safe, versatile​
​✓​ First principles thinking



So in summary:
  • An inclusive play space is accessible. Its location and organisation should allow access by children, parents and community members with functional limitations. Accessibility is not just about physical barriers though and it should also address other barriers linked to psychology, gender, culture, socioeconomic status, communication, policies, facilities and financial resources. 
  • Inclusive play spaces have multiple levels of challenge, offering a growth of activity for everyone. Children with functional limitations should be challenged at their own level, not a level someone else has decided is appropriate for them.
  • Inclusive play spaces allow grouping of activities, (grouping together different types of activities with varying levels of challenge), inviting engagement between children of different abilities, encouraging them being in proximity to one another, building relationships and understanding.
  • Inclusive play spaces offer play activities that have been selected and laid out in such a way that children with various abilities can engage and benefit from play. 

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4 Comments

What exactly is STEM? And how do you teach it?

22/4/2021

 
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By Jeni Wilson and the Nüdel Kart team

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STEM is definitely the new buzz word. But what exactly is it???

What does it really mean?
STEM stands for Science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
STEM is not coding and robotics. Rather "it covers a wide range of disciplines and skills, which are increasingly in demand in our rapidly changing world. STEM skills and knowledge are important for all stages of our learning, jobs and everyday lives." (Victoria State Government, Department of Education)


Why is STEM important?
STEM empowers individuals with the skills to succeed and adapt to this increasingly complex, changing, technological world. STEM is intended to lead to innovation necessary to sustain our economy. This innovation and science literacy depends on a solid knowledge base in the STEM areas.
STEM is important because it pervades every part of our lives. Science is everywhere in the world around us and is used to impact people and every living thing on earth.


What are STEM skills?
STEM skills relate subject specific skills in science, mathematics, and engineering to generic skills and dispositions. 
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but skills can include'
  • Creativity 
  • Inquiry Skills
  • Critical analysis 
  • Teamwork and collaboration.
  • Initiative and Growth mindset
  • Self regulation
  • Communication
  • Digital literacy
  • Problem solving 
  • Leadership
  • Resilience
  • Social skills
(See https://stem.getintoenergy.com/stem-skills-list/ and Western Australia Department of Education)


Why now?
There are multiple reasons why STEM skills are considered more important than ever. 
  • The 21st century challenges of both globalisation and a knowledge-based economy create an imperative to develop STEM skills - we know how to find information, but we don't necessarily know how to learn or think for ourselves. The skills listed above cannot simply "be taught", they have to be experienced.
  • STEM skills help to bridge the ethnic and gender gaps sometimes found in math and science field.
  • ​Automation means many jobs are disappearing and simply won't exist in the future
  • New jobs are emerging as an outcome of technological advances and innovation, many jobs in the future haven't even been created yet!
  • ​The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day. This can sometimes be to the detriment of social skill development which is in fact a huge component of STEM skills.
  • 75 percent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require workers with STEM skills. (Western Australia Dept of Education) AND ​STEM occupations are growing. They are nearly double that of other occupations
  • The wage for STEM jobs is about 70% more than the national average

​
What are some easy to implement resources for STEM?
There are limitless opportunities to practise STEM skills and learn about STEM concepts when engaging in free or structured play. STEM activities and lessons should be child led and help children learn how to use these skills in the real world.

In fact longitudinal studies conduced over the last 55 years show that early childhood play-based programs have the largest impacts on the education and long-term life outcomes of children (living in poverty) including a 42% rise in yearly earning, increase in high schools graduations and an increase in bachelor degrees. 

At Playground Ideas, we created the 
Nüdel Kart, a mobile, deconstructable playground based on the theory of loose parts. Loose Parts create an environment of endless possibilities that unlock a child's creative potential, build brain complexity, and creates very high levels of mental health and well being.

The Nüdel Kart can be used in or out of the classroom to help support STEM learning.

How does it do this?
Nüdel Kart is a mobile play kart that can be reconfigured in endless ways to encourage self-directed learning. It contains research-backed specially selected materials to stimulate children’s development. Nüdel Kart supports educational approaches, such as student directed learning, that aims to develop 21st century and first principle skills increasingly in demand in our rapidly changing world.

Designed for children 3-12 years, of all abilities, the Nüdel Kart and allows all children to adapt the kart to their needs. It engages up to 30 children at a time.

Nüdel Kart is a loose parts educational resource that promotes problem solving and creativity.
It comes with a supervisor manual that helps teach all the principles of STEM, and it can also be used to aid in STEM curriculum and support many other aspects of the curriculum.

Looking for examples of how to link STEM into the Australian Curriculum for different age groups? Check out the examples below:

Vehicles and moving things: Discuss push and pull. Use wood dowels and straps to try pushing and pulling a variety of objects. Alternatively Inquiry into force. Test how to make things move faster and slower. Explore friction building a pulley from Nüdel Kart pieces.

Go to market: Count and order coins and notes. Use Nüdel Kart pieces as currency and count, add and tally amounts. Alternatively, using real shopper dockets and brochures, use Nüdel Kart pieces to represent products and organise them according to price.
            
Other ideas include:
  • Students can trade loose parts, 
  • Build a simple telephone, 
  • Create an obstacle course, 
  • ​Construct a city or town… and  so much more

All of these and more are explained in the Nüdel Kart Supervisor Manual. One of many teaching resources we provide, check out our other resources here.

​
References
Engineering for kids, (2016). https://www.engineeringforkids.com/about/news/2016/february/why-is-stem-education-so-important-/
​Sewell, C. Wilson, J. Laing, B. and Veerman, M. (2020) Nudel Kart Teacher Manual.
Seven awesome facts about STEM education https://visual.ly/community/infographic/education/7-interesting-facts-about-stem-educationGet into energy. Get into STEM. https://stem.getintoenergy.com/stem-skills-list/
What is STEM? Western Australia Department of Education https://www.education.wa.edu.au/what-is-stem

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