Since 2019, Daniela and students in her courses have been involved, through term projects, in re-imagining how urban, community spaces within Waterloo Region can provide greater playful learning opportunities on many levels for young children and families. in these courses, students are applying what they are learning about children's early communicative development and socio-economic gradients affecting development, with their own further research into related worldwide initiatives to redevelop urban spaces into areas of greater playful learning for children and families. The students working in teams, in collaboration with Daniela, then come up with their own ideas to enhance these community spaces based on their research in all these areas. The particular community spaces change each term, based on Daniela's meetings with prior interested community members. At the end of the term, the student teams present their proposed spaces to the community members, which to date have included the Waterloo Park Advisory Committee, City of Waterloo Parks Staff, and City of Kitchener Parks Staff. These powerpoint presentations are (will be) featured here! And if any community members are interested in having students work on proposals like this for them, please just get in touch with Daniela.
July 25, 2022: this course and its student projects were highlighted in an article in The Record: Reimagining playgrounds in Waterloo Region.
Re-imagining 3 Kitchener Parks for Greater Playful Learning - Oaten, Kinzie and Idlewood
April 12, 2022, Presentations to City of Kitchener Parks Staff by undergraduate class PSY453W.
- Kitchener Park Presentation #1 (Dirks, Guo, Stockholm & Krsmanovic)
- Kitchener Park Presentation #2 (Becerra, Chaudry, Cooper & DeVos)
- Kitchener Park Presentation #3 (Lammers, El-Dik, Gibson, & Sabo)
- Kitchener Park Presentation #4 (Carvajal, D'Amore, Gray & Li)
- Kitchener Park Presentation #5 (Gradwell, Dunning, Tian & Hu)
Creating Greater Community Engagement with Waterloo Park in Wintertime and Throughout the Year
April 6, 2022, Presentation to the Waterloo Park Advisory Committee by graduate seminar class PSY680W.
Re-imagining 3 Areas of Waterloo Park for Greater Playful Learning - Eby Farm Playground, the Forest, and the Victorian Gardens
Dec. 10, 2021, Presentations to City of Waterloo Parks Staff by undergraduate class PSY470F.
- Waterloo Park Presentation 2021 #1 (Holoboff, Melanson, Shriastava & Chilton)
- Waterloo Park Presentation 2021 #2 (Colaco, Cretu & Nairn)
- Waterloo Park Presentation 2021 #3 (Hassan, Omar, Kim & D'Haene)
- Waterloo Park Presentation 2021 #4 (Font, Baker, Li & Tetreault)
- Waterloo Park Presentation 2021 #5 (Xu, Yoo & Wang)
Re-imagining the Eby Farmstead for Greater Playful Learning
July 10, 2019, Presentation to the Waterloo Park Advisory Committee by graduate class PSY680S.