In one of the 8 workshops at Greenfield E-act Academy in Bristol, the children learnt about requirements. I was very proud of them being able to sit through 1 hour and 45 minutes of engineering requirements. They learnt new words such as sustainability, anthropometrics (I still can’t pronounce that word) and requirements. Requirements are an aspect of the engineering process, that I think that many people would prefer to avoid, but as one of the lovely young apprentices that volunteered stated ’ you cannot engineer without knowing your requirements’.
During the workshop, the children were repeatedly asked questions, to make them really consider who it is they are designing the playground for, why they are designing the playground, where the playground is based and why the children in Baraa need to play. There were a lot of things to consider to be able to answer these questions and create a requirements list.
Through this process, they received insight of the needs of their global neighbour and how they can show care for them . Perhaps what was the most insightful was seeing that although all children are createD uniquely in different shapes and sizes. The desire to play is worldwide, methods of playing are consistent and play equipment can be built that is both universal and inclusive. The Baraa children like to dance and make sound when playing, guess what the Greenfield children do too!…and to be honest, so do I .
Marie Adeyemi
Children at Greenfield E-Act Academy receiving presentation feedback
Children in after school STEM club facilitated by Dream Networks
