Playful Exchanges with our Danish Friends
During the first week of September, a group of educational consultants from the Play@Heart project in Denmark, as well as some representatives from the LEGO Foundation, came to Tufts CEEO for a week of in-person collaboration and hands-on inspiration. Play@Heart works to bring a playful understanding of technology to children in Danish schools, working with schools to strengthen children’s creative and experimental use of technology.
Among the many activities throughout the week, partners from Tufts CEEO and Play@Heart took a field trip up to our friends at WMSI (White Mountain Science, Inc.) in Littleton, New Hampshire for a day of playful activities using different tools such as Makey Makey and LEGO SPIKE Prime. Milan Dahal, a grad student at Tufts describes the activity, “We assembled into smaller groups to build smaller projects but later coalesced to build one giant contraption. A group built a slide door mechanism with gears and wood, while the other group made gutters to roll balls at high speed. Another group built a kicker! The final idea was to roll a ball down the ramp that would somehow trigger the kicker to shoot the ball into the door and score, and of course, the door was now replaced by a goalkeeper. With some Makey Makey and SPIKE Prime we made it work!”
Back at Tufts CEEO, the group participated in meetings focused on playful learning strategies and research. Several activities were explored during an afternoon hackathon, including our signature SmartMotors. Participants were encouraged to explore and build with two different SmartMotor prototypes being developed here at the CEEO. One group built a contraption that pokes sleepy students who doze off in class, while another group built a “sensitivity testgame” that tests users’ ability to apply the right amount of pressure to trigger a motor arm to point towards a goal. Hackathon participants were intrigued by the simplicity of SmartMotors and discussed how using SmartMotors could reduce the barriers of entry for teachers looking to incorporate robotics into their curriculum.
While at CEEO, the Play at Heart and LEGO Foundation partners were also introduced to Elissa Milto, Tufts CEEO Director of Outreach, and her work in Novel Engineering, an integrated approach to teaching Engineering and Literacy. Participants experienced classic Novel Engineering tools, such as the book Peter’s Chair and building empathy maps to relate to characters in stories. Everyone was excited about the potential impact Novel Engineering could have in Danish classrooms.
Later in the week, some partners teamed up with grad student Yume Xu to tour the student-created gardens at Malden High school. They were amazed and inspired by the students’ creativity and ingenuity just as much as they were by the early fall harvest of various veggies and flowers. Many of our colleagues were interested in developing gardens like this at schools in Denmark, and the connections made this week to Yume’s work is a sure way to kickstart garden development elsewhere!
The Tech and Play initiative is truly global, and with the world beginning to open back up, the CEEO is excited to continue welcoming our international colleagues to play, tinker, and create with us in-person. Thanks to all our partners who continue to support our work, and share fantastic ideas about learning through play.
