Abstract
Playgrounds are common in cities, but in rural area in the United States as well as in many other places in the world, they are scarcely available due to many factors, mainly financial constraints. Some might argue that since there are so much land and nature in the rural area, there is no need to design and build manmade structures for play. Indeed, children can organize their own play in a natural and unaltered environment. However, in today’s security culture, rural children are no longer roaming the forests unsupervised. Rather, in the absence of play areas, they are being isolated in their homes. As a result, children fail to develop adequate social skills due to the lack of interaction with other children and adults. A playground brings together children and families live far apart in the rural area to help build these social skills and environmental knowledge. Especially considering the increasing numbers of home-schooled children in the rural area, a new form of playground that blends play and learn is much needed. Therefore, a rural playground should be designed to teach children about their surrounding environment. Our paper discusses the research conducted for a small organic permaculture farm with a business plan to create a “u-pick” operation to provide more attraction, and to teach ecology, agroforestry, aquaculture, and climate science to both children and adults. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities in this ongoing process and offers suggestions for future development in rural play and learn plans.
Presenters
Tao HuangChair, Art and Design, East Tennessee State University, Tennessee, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
RURAL PLAY, PLAYGROUND, PLAY AND LEARN, ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
