Guys, here it is the email address of John. I already send him the pictures of my design work so he could show his friends and family as well the people at school. I told him I would be passing his email to you so you could send him your work too. He wrote me back with good comments and he also sends his greetings to everyone. Here its: john.eskew@gmail.com
LETS KEEP IN TOUCH PEOPLE...I HAD A BLESS HAVING A CLASS WITH ALL OF YOU!
I HOPE WE'LL MEET AGAIN SOON, LUIS!
PS: MARRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF MY NEW FRIENDS!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Luis Dasilva - Children's Play and Vegetation reading:
In the "Children's Play and Vegetation" reading, It was very interesting to learn about the different stages that a child goes through when beginning their learning and exploring journey. It explains the relationship between children and nature and the roll that outdoor environment plays in the child development. In the first paragraph of this reading, I learned through Piaget's form of play theory that one of the first things that a child becomes interested in is by objects with different forms and shapes and only later as they grow, they start using their functional abilities. He described this theories as " practice play" and "games of construction".
Practice play as I understood, is the early stage when the child starts learning their first information about the world that they live in through their motor sensor. At this stage, young child learn through a repetition of an event or object as opposed to "Games of construction". For example; through sensors such as smell, noise, vision and touching young children learn how to relate smell to an object and give them its appearance. In Games of construction, the child becomes more vulnerable to understanding meaning of things. It was interesting to read about the experiments that was made by Payne and Hart. The experiment involved a series of events, in which they observed and compared the behavior of children from age three to fourteen. This article have a interesting topic and discuss materials that I have cover on previous classes on psychological subjects and its material its very important for professionals that have jobs related to child care. The article cares usefully information that will help me to relate on future design analysis and concept for the future.
Practice play as I understood, is the early stage when the child starts learning their first information about the world that they live in through their motor sensor. At this stage, young child learn through a repetition of an event or object as opposed to "Games of construction". For example; through sensors such as smell, noise, vision and touching young children learn how to relate smell to an object and give them its appearance. In Games of construction, the child becomes more vulnerable to understanding meaning of things. It was interesting to read about the experiments that was made by Payne and Hart. The experiment involved a series of events, in which they observed and compared the behavior of children from age three to fourteen. This article have a interesting topic and discuss materials that I have cover on previous classes on psychological subjects and its material its very important for professionals that have jobs related to child care. The article cares usefully information that will help me to relate on future design analysis and concept for the future.
Luis Dasilva - Developing evidence-based design, chapter 9:
In this chapter reading, I observed how important its for children to have a play area that can promote a diversity of activities that can help them to grow healthier and stronger. The reading provides evidences and studies about children health and behavior in different parts of the world. This studies conclude with the idea that children, overall, needs to have their daily physical activity to maintain a healthier immune system and also to help prevent child obesity and/or complications of obesity in their adulthood.
This reading also provides information about preferred playground materials and ideas on how to use then to create a better play area for the children. It explains the importance of having multiple choices of natural as well fabricate playground equipments/attractions so the children could have options of play that can help them to explore their physical and intellectual limits as well their social interactions with other kids. Its clear in this chapter that the environment for the young children needs to be surrounded by a diversity of amenities that promotes physical movement as it says in this quote taken from the Reading, "children learn about the environment and themselves by picking up environmental information and by performing developmental activities such as climbing, balancing, catching, clinging, crawling, hanging, hopping, jumping, leapfrogging, rocking, rolling, running, skipping, sliding, spinning, walking and so on."
Today in the culture that we live in, its very hard to design certain play areas or playground equipments/material that are appropriate and that meets with regulations law for safety. In spite that I too believe that safety must be the priority concern when designing a child care play facility, I also believe that a child needs to experience about everything and be vulnerable to most, but not all, outdoor conditions as long its not a life threatening condition. In this chapter, also talks about the (CPSC) Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines that are provided for us designer to better design play areas that meets with both licensing and safety regulations requirements. Although, as it says in this chapter, about how designers, educators, parents, owners and safety consultants have different opinions on how a playground needs to be designed and what materials to use, whether natural or not, I have my own opinion and belief that when comes to designing a playground we should truly live the ideals on what to use up for the children, who are the real users. This chapter have a lot to teach us about child care facilities design and certainly I will keep in mind everything I learn from it for future designs.
This reading also provides information about preferred playground materials and ideas on how to use then to create a better play area for the children. It explains the importance of having multiple choices of natural as well fabricate playground equipments/attractions so the children could have options of play that can help them to explore their physical and intellectual limits as well their social interactions with other kids. Its clear in this chapter that the environment for the young children needs to be surrounded by a diversity of amenities that promotes physical movement as it says in this quote taken from the Reading, "children learn about the environment and themselves by picking up environmental information and by performing developmental activities such as climbing, balancing, catching, clinging, crawling, hanging, hopping, jumping, leapfrogging, rocking, rolling, running, skipping, sliding, spinning, walking and so on."
Today in the culture that we live in, its very hard to design certain play areas or playground equipments/material that are appropriate and that meets with regulations law for safety. In spite that I too believe that safety must be the priority concern when designing a child care play facility, I also believe that a child needs to experience about everything and be vulnerable to most, but not all, outdoor conditions as long its not a life threatening condition. In this chapter, also talks about the (CPSC) Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines that are provided for us designer to better design play areas that meets with both licensing and safety regulations requirements. Although, as it says in this chapter, about how designers, educators, parents, owners and safety consultants have different opinions on how a playground needs to be designed and what materials to use, whether natural or not, I have my own opinion and belief that when comes to designing a playground we should truly live the ideals on what to use up for the children, who are the real users. This chapter have a lot to teach us about child care facilities design and certainly I will keep in mind everything I learn from it for future designs.
TPD Reflections on the readings
Did I mention I hate this blog???
You can't cut and paste text!!!
Anyway, I'll do it this way:
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Comments on the readings
In the Cosco chapter(9) the author stresses the correlation between inactivity and childhood obesity and how children are benefited by sufficiently challenging environments and interaction with nature. This was also borne out by my site analysis into playground standards and what experts say children need for play: adventure and nature. Also the layout of the play area is most important to the percieved success from the children-user's perspective. Layout also contributes to the potential for exercise and "challenge" which again are considered critical use objectives for play ground design. Finally the author points out how, so far, playground design has fallen short of these goals and since children need to play they are the ones suffering in face of this lack. In the "children's play and vegetation" article the background on Piaget's study into child development stages is also important to designers as we construct play pieces and spaces that address each age group's needs and how to best support their cognitive and physical growth. For example, a child's tendacy to animism where they believe nature is real and alive should be both cautionary and exciting in terms of which plants landscape architects choose within their plans. In another example we must remember when designing for a cross age area that older children interact with textures and approach movement with a more whole physical immersion and therefore spaces should accommodate this. The end result is that again plants and vegetation offer an equally viable designing medium for playground design and can hold their own against engineered play structures or technology.
Final Presentation
I thought that the panel of guests was extremely helpfull. The insight and challenges from a wide range of professionals was a really positive experience. Of course the snacks were good too. One of the most interesting perspectives was from the attending parent from the school because as designers we can project and assume what the students of Gardner school would like but Jonathon (sp?) has intimate knowledge of that site and was able to give a true user based reaction to our design proposals, Thank You.
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