Students Dazzle Judges with Presentations on Playground Project
By ROB FAULKNER
Students with polished presentations.
Last year, Sir William Osler elementary was one of the HWDSB schools in the Imagining My Sustainable City Architecture and Urban Planning Project – a four-day intensive program in which architectural educators work with students to re-imagine their neighbourhoods as thriving spaces where culture and heritage are brought into the future.
Since then, one Osler teacher has taken this even further.
Grade 7-8 teacher Dan Siertsema built on the expertise students gained last year as the school prepares to update its playground. The challenge put to Siertsema from Osler Vice-Principal Mark Verbeek was this: if we are updating our playground, make the project planning an example of classroom learning through discovery and inquiry.
So, Siertsema’s students immersed themselves in the project and took ownership of it.
Students developed weekly agendas with plans; they brainstormed what was required for a new playground; they broke into ‘departments’ such as advertising, design and safety; they contacted experts for advice; they wrote proposals, raised funds, built models, created slideshows and made movies; and on April 28, they presented their project to judges and classmates in Osler’s library.
Officially, the three classes were competing as they presented their new playground designs – designs that had to promote increased activity while considering the environment, cognitive stimulation and positive social relationships. The judges couldn’t bring themselves to choose just one winner.
“What you have done is absolutely amazing,” said Superintendent of Student Achievement Mag Gardner. “You’ve been creative, thoughtful, critical in your thinking and each one of you can take these skills and use them to do so many things.”
For example, the Grade 7 team Creative Ambitious Designers considered everything from water drainage to garbage in a ravine as they plotted a redesign with an outdoor classroom, a sand volleyball area and more. The Grade 7 French Immersion squad Constructive Conservative Creators explained how students need fresh air and the freedom to play, even if it means getting dirty. They envisioned grass slides, gazebo swings and a play structure made from an upside-down tree.
As Grade 8 FI students on Innovative Inventors interviewed fellow students, they learned that swings, monkey bars and volleyball courts were popular ideas. They designed a website, and planned to use clear plastic viewing areas to let students see what was happened underground.
For visitors, every presentation was a way to see how great learning happens.
Learn more on Twitter @dsiertse and Instagram @swoplaygroundproject.
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- Students with polished presentations.
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- Models filled the judges table.
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- Judges clearly impressed.
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- Agenda for the day.
Updated on Friday, April 29, 2016.