Page 53 - LearningSCAPES 2021

SESSIONABSTRACTS continued...
• Explore design concepts and considerations as seen through the eyes of middle school students around the world.
• Discuss practices for intentionally gathering and leveraging student voice in the design and planning process.
• Commit to listening to and learning from the true users of the spaces you design, students.
• Issue a call to action for recruiting future student participants to inform equitable design and inspire the next generation of
architects and designers.
Michelle Carpenter, Chief strategy officer, Natural Pod
Michelle is the chief strategy officer (CSO) at Natural Pod, a company focused on creating better learning environments. Michelle specializes in developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives, ensuring Natural Pod thoughtfully supports students and educators within their learning environments. Michelle has served as the SchoolsNEXT Southeast Chair since 2019.
Steven Turckes, FAIA, ALEP, LEED AP, PreK-12 Global Practice Leader, Principal, Perkins&Will
Steven is the national director of the K-12 Educational Facilities Group for Perkins&Will, an international award-winning architectural firm specializing in the research-based planning and design of innovative and sustainable educational facilities. An enthusiastic advocate for advancing education through design, Steve has led the development of innovative K through 12 schools by educating communities, sharing his expertise, and transforming architecture for education. Steve firmly believes in the power of education and educational environments to change lives.
Bill Bradley, Principal, Stantec
Friday, October 15, 2021 - 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Investing in Communities Through Placemaking and Play: Playful Learning Landscapes
1 LU
School and childcare closures due to COVID-19 have underscored the important role families and communities play in shaping children’s learning and development. Research shows that healthy and positive child-caregiver interactions and learning through play and experimentation set a positive trajectory for lifelong skills attainment and healthy development. Policymakers have largely invested resources in improving access and quality of preschools in order to address inequities in language development, spatial skills, and numeracy that often already exist between children from higher- and lower-income backgrounds when entering formal schooling. While this is a key part of the solution, children only spend 20 percent of their waking hours in school, so the “other 80 percent” of time spent outside the classroom, including in the home and community settings, also offers important opportunities to supplement and extend school learning. Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) has sought to address the learning inequalities that exist outside of the classroom by marrying the science of learning with urban design and placemaking to embed learning opportunities in places where families regularly go, such as bus stops, parks, and supermarkets, transforming public and shared spaces into enriched learning hubs for the development of healthy children, families, and communities.
In partnership with local community leaders, funders, and nonprofit organizations, PLL installations have been piloted in neighborhoods across the U.S. Findings from these pilots shows that PLL promotes the kinds of caregiver-child communication that supports language learning and relationship building, encourages children’s talk about numbers, letters, and spatial relations, and increases caregivers’ attitudes about the connection between play and learning. With more children growing up in socially, economically, and racially stratified neighborhoods, city and community leaders are increasingly looking to PLL as a promising way to engage families living in low-resourced communities to build community cohesion and bring learning to the public realm.
Learning Objectives: