Westwood Elementary takes on a Playground Design Challenge

Westwood Elementary's gifted program has taken on design thinking as a platform to launching several different challenges. Groups of students have come up with areas that they see in need of improvements in their homes, their communities, and their schools. One team in particular has chosen to redesign the school playground. Having met with an educational consultant from Playcore to help formulate the idea, the consultant also provided the students with research and tools to evaluate the curent playground to see what was needed. They then implemented the Empathy Phase of the design thinking process by interviewing students and staff at Westwood Elementary to see what changes and improvements needed to be made.

The team of young innovators has been invited to tour the Playcore factory where the equipment is manufactureed and shipped and to engage in conversation about creating a plan for implementing the improvements to the playground. This team of students will continue to work with Playcore to design the new playground and potentially implement their designs.