The Secret Garden Toolkit Report by Ismael Velo

THE SECRET GARDEN TOOLKIT

Student: Ismael Velo Coach: Bart Hengeveld M1.2

P R E FA C E

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One day a new teacher told Dr. Montessori that there was just nothing worth exploring in the outside environment of their city school. So Dr. Montessori led the children outside to the front of the building. An hour later they hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t gone any further than a small weed patch a few feet away. It was full of tiny details of life and absolutely fascinating to the childrenâ&#x20AC;? Susan Mayclin The Secret Garden Toolkit is a set of instruments that encourage and support open-ended, stimulating play and active discovery outdoors, while contributing to aesthetic sensitivity of the children and their interest for all the things that nature has to offer. More than a set of toys, the toolkit is the physicalization of a broader educational project. One that aims at providing the children with instruments and a framework for interdisciplinary learning inside and outside their school context.

5 Page of the Tulpenboek ~ Jacob Marrel (1637)

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

Motivation for the project: hopes and fears

Background information

a. b. c.

Urban farming and Garden Mania Nature-based education and the benefits of outdoors play Education in Spain and The Netherlands

The concept generation process

a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j.

Working group Cultural probe Engaged observation Interview with users Two ideas Interview with Springzaad Call for memories What it is like to be an explorer? Explorations Interview with teacher

The Secret Garden Toolkit

a. The kit b. Prototyping c. General objectives d. Activities e. Evaluation of the concept f. Feasibility of the concept

8 10 10 12 14 16 18 18 20 20 22 24 29 29 30 30 34 36 38 42 43 60 62

General conclusions

Personal reflections

Reference list

Aknowledgements

72 7

1.MOTIVATIONS FOR THE PROJE

CT: HOPES AND FEARS

It was at the end of June when a project related with urban gardening caught my eye when reading the project descriptions for the following semester. Being myself a boy raised in a rural area back in Spain, I was habituated to roam wild, get dirty with earth and witness, day after day, the care and attention put in the growth of a vegetable garden. However, some years of universitary education in Barcelona and Eindhoven kind of cut the connection with what it is like to grow my own food, the knowledge and satisfaction that one can get from it, and in general, the connection with the natural world. The New Green Now project, in close collaboration with Garden Mania, an urban garden in Strijp-S, was meant to be the project that would hopefully give me the opportunity to reconnect with gardening, this time in an urban context, but eventually satisfying the sort of â&#x20AC;&#x153;rural nostalgiaâ&#x20AC;? that I seemed not to be the only one experiencing. (Urban) gardening and its related aspects such as seasonality, species, use of herbs and plants beyond cooking, and the contact with nature in general, as well as the social and cultural aspects around it, all were things that made the choice easy to make. With regard to the more design-related side, I knew beforehand that I wanted to thoroughly look at the development of my own design process and to incorporate to it the act of making things with my own hands. On the other hand, not being able to enjoy the process was among my main concerns. Also the openness of the proposal (since we did not have an specific problem to tackle and the only constraint was the time in which we have to deliver) and the idea of not reaching my own expectations: deliver a high quality solution that goes beyond the sustainability trend.

a .U R BA N

FA R M I N G

A N D

Urban farming or the act of growing fruits, herbs, and vegetables and raising animals in cities, is a trend, together with its complementary activities. It is hot, hype and reaches to users of all ages and conditions, in a process that has been called “countrification of the city” (TrendOne, 2013). Some trend forecasting agencies have been talking about it for years now, linking it to other macro trends such as a “the shift towards a transformation economy” (Brand & Rochi, 2011, p.13-17) and “the growth in the demand of organic and locally produced food” (TrendOne, 2013). But the thing now is getting serious, “extending its influence from a ‘vacant-lots-only’ phenomenon to a ‘restof-the-city’ phenomenon” (de Boer, 2013) and we can find it in places from rooftops to private terraces and backyards, window sills, empty buildings and even traffic medians and other areas that gardeners have no legal rights to use, a movement that has been named as guerrilla gardening. Now, all this community gardens that are popping-up around the globe, depending on their location, can be addressing different issues: from “enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life” […] maintain cultural tradition […] build social capital or even become a business opportunity” (Joan Twiss et al., 2003). There are studies that show how urban agriculture and “the activities related to it, from cooking and nutrition classes, rainwater harvesting or farmers markets, can have social, health, economic and ecological benefits in the neighborhoods” (Five Borough Farm, 2014), and by extension, in the cities in which the projects are developed. Eindhoven, as one can imagine, is not out of contact with this reality, being the home of several urban gardens and several initiatives related with organic food.

GA R D E N

M A N I A

Garden Mania, our stakeholder and one of the gardens located in the city, is more than an urban garden. In the words of Desirée Hammen, one of the founders, “it was born in 2012 with the intention of being a place to teach and make things”, in which the garden is one more of the elements that support the community, but not the only one. “We want to promote a new vision on how to look at nature, improve sustainability and build community around all kinds of activities”. Within their barely 500m2 in the area of Strijp-S, the organization promotes organic gardening and applies some principles of permaculture: “I put effort on having more and more weird plants, considered weed by most of the people, but very interesting for us and for the bees” Desirée says. Besides harvesting what they grow, the users of the garden and members of the community (subscribers) can enjoy weekly dinners, year round workshops and concerts or simply a drink at the bar. A “social hub”, as I like to call it, far beyond the garden itself. In their vision for the future, one of the main points is to grow as a community, organizing more and more activities for the like-minded users and become a sort of free place for leisure in which neighbours can organize their own activities in this unconventional, open-air space, always ready to be moved to another location when required by the municipality. As a stakeholder, they did not have a specific goal for the project. Instead, they had a semi-green space full of growing beds that dried too fast in summer, some organizational problems and a list of customers way too short as for the entire plan to be sustainable in the long term. In other words, they had a great challenge for a bunch of young designers like us.

2 . BA CK GRO U ND

IN F O R M AT IO N

Garden Mania ~ John Vlaming

School children outdoors listening to a man (1899) ~ Wikipedia

b.N ATURE

BASED

E DUCAT I ON

A N D

Friluftsliv, which difficulty translate to english into “free air life”, is a Norwegian term often used to refer to a “way of life that is spent exploring and appreciating nature” (McLendon, 2014). More than a term, friluftsliv is an essential part of Norway’s culture related with the dynamic and balanced relationship between people and their natural surroundings. During my time in this country, I personally witnessed this spirit, almost a state of mind, and the joy and solace that it brings to the people who dare to live according to it. This beautiful concept comes perfectly in hand to introduce another concept, coined by Richard Louv (2005) in his book Last Child in the Woods, that is the one of Nature-Deficit Disorder, or the hypothesis that children are spending less and less time outdoors, resulting in a wide variety of growing problems, such as “attention-deficit problems, depression or obesity among others” (Louv, 2005).

TH E

B E N E F I TS

O F

O U TD O O R S

P L AY

The idea that humans innately love spending time in nature, in response to a sort of inner instinct from a not so distant age in which life would happen outdoors and houses functioned basically as shelters against the elements, has been around for some time now. Regardless of its scientific rigour (Nature-Deficit Disorder has not been officially recognized by the medical community), what seems clear to me is that there is a lack of balance between the amount of time that people, specially in cities, spend in contact with the natural environment compared with that spent in the “safe” indoors. And this issue, or at least its consequences, appear to be more alarming among children. “It is often the case [...] that intellectual activities are done inside, and large muscle activities done outside. So the only thing one finds outside is playground equipment. This separates the work of the mind and the body and splits the naturally integrated life of the young child. The most impor-

tant work is done with the mind and body working together to create” (Stephenson, 2010). While most of us have memories of countless encounters with nature during our childhood, “such moments are less and less common for the present generation of children”, Sharman Apt Russell (2005) says. The good news are that one does not need to live in Norway or next to a natural park in order to experience the benefits of being more in contact with nature. Actually, a simple grass patch is usually full of details to be discovered, unknown for the vast majority of us, but very interesting after all, and a beautiful sunset can be enjoyed from almost anywhere as long as there are no physical “walls” to it. Coming back to children and their education, there are more and more initiatives taking action in order to bridge the existing gap between children and nature, from forest schools in which children literally “learn from outside play, all year round. Open fires, messing around with tools, outdoor toilets and outside in rain and snow” (Barkham, 2014); to more conventional schools that, facing the impossibility of taking kids to nature, opt for bringing nature to where children are, as far as their resources allow them. Experts like Sharon G. Danks, author of the book Asphalt to Ecosystem. Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, give advices to school teachers and parents on how to turn sterile and over protective traditional schoolyards into fruitful and abundant school gardens full of learning potential, by only using a few available resources. According to her “in our increasingly urban society, people of all ages have become disconnected from the natural and agricultural environment that sustain us. The effect is most profound for children growing up in our cities, but touches the rest of our population as well […] new, vibrant learning environments can be used in countless ways to address this situation […] Many children who have trouble sitting still in the classroom turn into leaders in the garden, gaining new confidence and respect from their peers” (Danks, 2010, p. 79).

She also says: “Some research indicates that using hands-on, place based learning is also beneficial to students from an academic perspective […] They attribute theses benefits to the interdisciplinary nature of place-based studies that allows students to see the connections between the concepts they are studying and to the increased relevance of the curriculum, which encourages students to become self-motivated learners” (Danks, 2010, p. 26). For their part, Lynne Suarez and those who helped her found the Tule Elk Park Project in San Francisco claim that “children living in cities needed outdoor spaces to support their optimal growth and development. They saw the schoolyard as an untapped resource and realized the opportunity to address growing problems such as the increasing disconnection of children from the natural world, the reduction of educational and recreational resources for children, particularly those from low-income families and the importance of and need for early childhood education programs” (Tule Elk Park School, 2014). Back in The Netherlands, organizations like Springzaad (www.springzaad.nl) are very much aware of this issues too and for more than 13 years they have dedicated themselves, on their own words, “to create naturally designed gardens and parks, oasis in which children are given opportunities rather than material, and where they play with the swing for 15 minutes and with water and insects for 3 hours”.

In short, it appears to be a clear relationship between children being in closer connection with the natural environment and a substantial improvement in their physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. Besides the extensive research done in the topic, my personal experience and the fact that there are more and more children daunted by prickles and dirt and more scared of lizards than of monsters, seems to confirm it. And here is where Garden Mania has the potential to play an important role.

c.EDUCATION IN SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS

In Spain, the country I come from, primary education is experiencing a slow but progressive change. Still too relegated to the individual will of some proactive teachers, the so called Project Based Education is making its way (or trying to) against the traditional form of education. The main difference among them is that, while traditional education puts its focus on the habitual subjects with clear boundaries among them (maths, science, arts, languages…), project based education allow children to work, based on a theme plan, all sort of disciplines and contents, as well as the connection among them. As Rosa says (a teacher with experience in teaching children from 6 to 12 years old), “essentially, it is a much more integrated and interdisciplinary method in which, to begin with, the student is the protagonist of his/her own learning. Both the themes and the specific activities revolving around them are often proposed from the needs and interests of the children, manifested buy themselves beforehand”. To follow, the projects address the need of an education based in competences, among them: learn to learn, autonomy and individual initiative, linguistic communication, social competence and citizenship, as well as digital competence and information processing. Lastly, and besides the concrete activities, children are fostered to keep a critical and curious spirit, stimulated to reflect on their own actions and encouraged to reason their own opinions, among others. The final goal is to prepare the children for a complex world that requires autonomy and self criticism, in which information is widely available and where communication and exchange is more valuable than knowing facts. In other words, “we try to prepare children to be able to organize their thinking around their interest and curiosity [...] forgetting about the amount of things they have

to learn and focus on quality and learning by doing instead” (Arias Correa, A. et al., 2009, p.15). It is, in Rosa’s words, “still an utopia in most of the schools, mainly because it requires a bigger effort from the teacher in comparison with the book-based education, often too structured and tight”; from the elaboration of the proposal to the collection of the necessary material, as well as for the following evaluation of the success or failure of the project itself. As a matter of fact, this kind of education usually brings along with it a tendency to execute more out-of-the-classroom activities, in contrast with the traditional education, rather tied to the classroom. In The Netherlands, the focus seems to be put in 3 key aspects: “the personalization of the learning activities and the development of 21st century skills” (Desain & Wetering, 2013), both aspects are of my interest. Technology is here the element destined to become key in the accomplishment of these two aspects. Whereas in Spain we consider the digital competence mainly a tool related with the search and processing of the information using digital tools, in The Netherlands the integration of technology in education is something that happens at a higher level, from the assimilation of DIY and open source principles, to the development of specific educational tools aimed at making education more suitable to the individual requirements of every child.

However, any of the countries seem to put special attention in the balance between indoors and outdoors activities, and the possible lost of connection with nature caused by, what an irony, the era of interconnection.

1. Children in a science class (Spain) 2. Children at De Ontdekfabriek (Eindhoven)

To finish, the main reason why I am introducing all this aspects is that I see potential in: - The role of designers, as active participants in the development of balanced educational projects and their related activities, specially if it includes the design of (technological) tools to facilitate

such activities. - The need of a more balanced education and the role of urban gardens as potential educators within an eventual network of â&#x20AC;&#x153;outdoorsâ&#x20AC;? classrooms destined to bring nature closer to the inhabitants of the cities, including children.

3 .TH E

cultural

CO NC E P T

G E NE R ATI ON

g .

probe

c a l l

fo r

b. d . i nt er v i ew

us ers

c. f.

e nga ge d

obs e rvatio n

i nt er v i ew

a .

e . t wo i d ea s

wo r kin g

grou p

S p r i n g z a a d

m em

P RO C ESS i nt er v i ew

t ea c h er

j . INTRODUCTION The reason why I call this section The Concept Generation Process is simple. Being used to design from a pretty clear briefing, the idea of initiating a project out of the blue, being given little more than a context and a few broad problems was the real challenge for me.

m o r i es

Although the design process went far beyond the last point of this section, the true struggle for me was not to roam in circles and get lost in decisions during the conceptualization phase, thus the focus and name of the section.

i .

ex plorations

h .

Starting with the understanding of given methodologies such as IDEOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Design Process, I chose some different approaches that seemed coherent to me to carry out, from desk research on the topic of urban gardens to engaged observation, interviews, role playing and other 1st person perspective activities, giving extra importance to the quality of the information rather than the quantity and striving always to let the project speak back to me and hear what was the necessary next step. In other words, to find the balance between method and intuition. And I must say that, for the first time in my life as a designer, I can see that this balance was achieved, until the point that I am able to trace my thinking process back through the semester in a fairly linear way. The intention of this section is, therefore, to drive you throughout this process and give you an impression of what it was like for me to go through it.

wh at

a n

ex plore r?

a .WO R K I N G

G RO U P

Setting a working group together with the rest of the students involved in the same project was the very first stepping stone. Previous experiences have told me that we are smarter collectively than individually, and having a group with which to have a regular and relaxed collaboration helps maintaining a high level of exigence, while giving you different points of view on the subject that are usually handy to see things more clear. Moreover, given the fact that the different students have different backgrounds seemed like an extra reason for it, so I took the lead and managed to organize meetings that lasted till the very end of the semester. Through them we shared inspiration and information (specially related with desk research), brainstorm together, gave feedback to each other and prepared activities that would have been much more difficult to set up as individuals.

b . C U LT U R A L

P RO B E

The very first of this activities was the setting of a cultural probe in Garden Mania. Addressed specially to the members of the community, it included a map of the garden that was displayed in situ, together with some questions about their favorite spots and activities carried out there, and a camera to document them. The intention was to gather some inspirational data about the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts and motivations, as well as to have a feeling, over time, of their level of engagement with the community. After barely four pins in the map and an empty book whose pages flown after some windy days, one might think that it was a clear failure. However, analyzing it carefully, I can see it was the reflection of two things: the difficulties we would face for reaching users, related with the fact that the low season for gardening was just starting and the visits to the garden dramatically dropped; as well the overall â&#x20AC;&#x153;moodâ&#x20AC;? of the garden, which drew little inspiration in both members and visitors.

19 Cultural Probe set in Garden Mania ~ John Vlaming

20 3.

c . E N GA G E D

O B S E RVAT I O N

The empathy phase continued with a 1st person perspective approach. Visiting the garden several time during the first weeks, I immersed myself in what at IDEO call “an engaged observation within the context”. There I played the role of my user and tried, not only to look at what was going on, but also to feel what it was like to arrive to the garden as a new member, willing to collaborate. I pulled out some weed, planted winter rye, prepared grow beds for the low season and harvested vegetables that were left from the summer season. I quickly observed some relevant aspects such as the high inefficiency and lack of clarity of both the organization and communication systems, and its consequences in a place in which everybody owned everything and members had to work for the community garden, not only for themselves. I also noticed the absence of knowledge present in the garden for those with willpower but that are inexperienced with the act of cultivating, which presumably lead to discouragement and eventually, to withdrawal. These points became even more clear when we visited Stadstuin De Bergen, another of the urban gardens present in the city, and were rapidly faced with a much more lively and charming atmosphere, probably the reflection of a much more engaged community.

1. Stadstuin De Bergen 2. One of the users in Garden Mania 3. Notes from the interviews

d . I N T E RV I E W U S E R S These dialectal inquires with users and staff members helped me look at the context from a 2nd person perspective. The intention was to uncover their needs and gain insights about their experiences in the garden. Among the interviewees there were some extreme users, “maniacs” of Garden Mania that are regularly present, engaged and whose workarounds are often more notable, which gave me an emphasized impression of what other average users’ needs might be. The interviews gave me information about the different profiles of members and the diverse perceptions they have of the garden (for some of them it is strictly a place to “enjoy, not to garden”), as well as the general chaos that made engagement difficult. But above all it was a confirmation of the lack of clarity about the general rules, the roles and responsibilities of the different members of the staff, as well as the activities that in general needed to be regularly carried out in order to keep a healthy garden and community. “The challenge is to attract people first, and keep them collaborating with the improvement of the organization” Lise says.

At the Mid Term Demo Day, and after having gone through the first phases of the concept generation process, two ideas were on top among the ones generated.

The first one, turning the urban garden into a playground, was born very early in the process. Being very close to De Ontdekfabriek (an indoor playground for children in Strijp-S), I had always thought that emphasizing the playfulness of the garden would bring more kids to it, and with them, their parents. It could serve them as a way to reconnect with nature, and the energy released by the children playing could even be used to help solving some watering problems. The way I envisioned this transformation of the space was through the addition of classic playground elements (seesaws, swings...) connected to an irrigation system yet to be developed. Turning the landscape of the garden into a more sensorial and narrative environment through the design of less traditional playground elements was another of the options I had in mind for the concretization of the idea. Among the obstacles? The fact that children go to places when parents go, and not the other way around; and the difficulty to develop a whole integrated irrigation system for a garden that needs to move.

e .T WO

IDEAS

The second idea was more related with digging into the memories that current adults could have from their childhood related with nature in general and gardening in particular. Most of us have memories playing in our favorite spot of our grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden or the smell of earth after the rain, so the intention was to find what could be the inner impulse that would reconnect them with their natural surroundings and the act of gardening, in the form of a subscription to Garden Mania, where they could not only garden, but recall and share their stories with other like-minded people. More of a communication campaign than a product, the idea included bringing Garden Mania outside the garden and to the streets as a form of storytelling, providing the community with an sponsored platform to share memories. A rather romantic idea that seemed more difficult to physicalize.

24 3.

f. I N T E RV I E W

W I T H

S P R I N G Z A A D

Being the first concept the most promising one, according to both my feelings and the feedback received during the Mid Term Demo Days, the next step was to set up a meeting with Willy, founder of Springzaad (www.springzaad.nl), an association that brings together people interested in creating more space for children and nature; and Oase (www.stichtingoase.nl), a non profit organization aiming to promote more naturally designed gardens, respectively. He could be a key person to help me integrate my ideas about the playground with the garden, without them being add-ons in the space but completely detached from the activities carried out there, which was one of the challenges. Together we visited Het Woeste Westen (www. woestewesten.nl), a natural playground in the west part of Amsterdam in which children make bread in an outdoors oven, catch fishes and sail rafts made by themselves, all year round, and where I witnessed myself the complete excitement of a group of kids playing with mud in a humid morning of autumn. We talked about his experience of more than 13 years designing both natural playgrounds and urban gardens in collaboration with designers and landscape architects. He introduced me to the concept of Nature-Deficit Disorder and the importance of “getting children to play outside, also in winter. “It is more important to give children opportunities to play rather than material to do it”. He also emphasized the importance of “always integrating a little bit of a workshop activity within the exercises we propose”, as a way to promote the self development of the kids, always more capable of things than we adults think. “We have some traditional playground elements here, like a swing, but they play there for 15 minutes and then get bored. However, with the water, they can play for hours” said Mar-

tin, the responsible of Het Woeste Westen. Besides all this, he provided me with some references that in the end became essential for me to understand the ins and outs of a perfect play landscape: open ended and stimulating spaces that promote safe but challenging, active and imaginative play, with only a few rules. One of these references was Asphalt to Ecosystem. Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, a book beautifully written by Susan G. Dansk that, as mentioned in page 11, gives advices to school teachers and parents on how to turn sterile and over protective traditional schoolyards into fruitful and abundant school gardens full of learning potential, by only using a few available resources. At this point something changed in my mind. A radical shift of approach when I suddenly realized that Garden Mania already includes most of the aspects that children were unconsciously looking for in a place to play: it is safe but challenging (all the bags displayed around create a sort of labyrinth, an atmosphere specially interesting for the smaller kids) and full of species of herbs and plants to discover and make things with, very similar to the natural school yards described in the book. Rather than change the space or add something for them to play with, fixed structures that stay the same every day, the best I could do was to give children the tools to satisfy their natural need for exploration and discover in this context.

How might I facilitate open-ended, stimulating play that satisfies their need for exploration and discovery in Garden Mania? The focus shifted to the children and the garden became the perfect context. The concept of an integrated explorers toolkit was born.

1. Willy and Martin in Het Woeste Westen 2. Tools for an Insect Scavenger Hunt 3. Movable tree logs to play

In this page you can find an overview, from left to right, of the development of my thoughts reflected in my notebook, a visualization of my journey at this point . For the first time in my life as a design student I was able to trace back the mental record or “history” of my thinking and change of strategy throughout this meeting and the reflections later, until I came to the idea of an explorer’s toolkit for the garden.

28 Some of the tools included in existing explorersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toolkits

g . CA L L F O R M E M O R I E S Although the idea of play and discovery was the clear focus now, there was still one aspect from the second idea that I absolutely wanted to integrate: the memories.

“I loved to cook with all kind of herbs and mud and leaves I could find in the garden... I had a children kitchen where I was mixing and mashing... The sun was my oven!”

I am myself a fairly nostalgic person, so the idea of making use of these memories and integrate them into the final solution was for me a way to make the project more personal. But first I needed to not only dive into my own childhood memories, but to know what other people’s memories were related to their time in contact with nature. So I asked people to look back in time and answer a simple question: can you recall a memory from your childhood related with gardening and/or playing outdoors in the nature?

“We used to build houses in our backyard, where of course the leaves counted as money when we wanted to ‘buy’ materials”

Climbing trees, building huts and “cooking” with mud and leaves were among the most common ones. Making things up by only using a few natural resources available was actually a very recurrent one, from pies made with earth and leaves to roads and jewellery made out of stones, acorns and cherries.

“I would search for the buds that were almost beginning to open, and gently peel them off, unfolding the red velvety petals, thus ‘helping the flowers’ [...] I played a lot with the things that were already naturally outside. I could go on for hours” It was a confirmation of the fact that, as children, we don’t need a lot to engage in a flow of hours and hours of play, but the freedom to do it. Also that the beauty of the outcome of our play, if ever there was one, was not the most important thing, but the disposition to make our own choices, discover the world around us or create our own. Definitely a good exercise to gain valuable insights for the future development of the concept.

h .W H AT I S I T L I K E TO B E A N E X P LO R E R ? For the next stage of the process I asked myself: what is it like to be an explorer? I read the book How to Be an Explorer of the World, a beautiful source of small exercises, for anyone from children to elderly on how to “always be looking at the world around you as if you have never seen it before, driven by curiosity” in the words of the author, Keri Smith. I also looked for a more poetic inspiration in movies and mapped the way in which technology could contribute to the enhancement of the exploration experience, from augmented reality to distant communication technologies that could not only accentuate the feeling of adventure but extend it to other contexts. To finish, I scanned the market in search of

existing explorers toolkits, finding that they usually include magnifying glasses, torches, binoculars, a compass and a knife or similar, among others; but they usually lack the sense of detail and care for what you are exploring. How could I design a new toolkit that goes beyond the existing ones, offering a whole integrated experience to the children? I knew what I wanted: to bring children to the garden over time for hands-on adventures, allowing them to discover new things, learn new skills and keep them engaged as they completed the different activities. But which activities?

i .EXPLOR AT ION S In order to answer this question (see previous page) I did something that not for obvious was easier for me: to do exploration in the garden myself.

sitivity towards gardening and the silent beauty of plants was growing exponentially by only being in contact with the garden. My hope was to have kids feeling the same after the use of the tools.

As a person used to sit down and think, going to the context with no prejudices and an open mind to try things wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an easy step. But surprisingly enough it lead to the most unexpected results

The result of this step? A fairly wide set of different potential activities to propose (specially related to arts, the aesthetic discovery of the garden and the hidden potential of the natural resources)

and became the most personal phase of the whole design process, a key iteration towards the development of the final concept.

as well as a bunch of possible tools yet to be developed. From â&#x20AC;&#x153;googles of enhanced perceptionâ&#x20AC;? to see the world through color, to tools that would allow children to make pigments using natural elements or a torch for the night exploration of nature in general and the garden in particular, again through colors.

That day I found what my true fascinations where in relation to nature and the garden. Trying different tools (such as color chips, mortar and pestle, brushes and colored acetates) I strived to step into the shoes of a child (my own inner child) while looking at the flowers and herbs closer, discovering fascinating things: did you know that the stem of the pumpkins is hollow and you can use it as a straw? Or that red flowers from feather clovers give you an intense blue pigment immediately after they are smashed? I could immediately image how captivating could it be for children to engage in a color-driven botanical exploration of the world around them.

After the pertinent reflections and the discussion with the coach that followed the action, it became clear that choices needed to be made regarding the amount of tools included in the kit and their nature, specially if we looked at the time left for development before the end of the semester. At that time it started to be clear to me that those tools that promoted a more active participation of the children and the activities that would allow for a more workshop-like approach, were the ones worth becoming part of the final toolkit.

I also found a real connection with the garden, not only that day but throughout the different visits to

A visualization of what the possible future scenar-

it along the whole semester, realizing that my sen-

ios of use could be helped making these choices.

j.INT ERV IEW

WIT H

As a final stage in the development of the concept I visited, together with other students from the working group, a local teacher with experience with kids from 0 to 9 years old. Throughout the interview we had the opportunity to ask her diverse questions and evaluate the consistency and age accuracy of our proposals, all of them related, of course, with children.

T E A C H E R Personally, it was a way to early measure the realism, rigour and relevance of the activities supported by a toolkit that at this point existed only in my mind, as well as their possible relation with the school curricula and their connection with the developmental stage of children at different ages.

1-2. My own exploration

3. A still of the interview ~ John Vlaming

31 3.

C LOSE

OBSERVATI ON

W HETHER

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I N T RO D U C T I O N The Secret Garden Toolkit is a set of instruments designed and put together to encourage and support open ended, stimulating play and discovery for children in Garden Mania, the Amazon or their own backyard. Every piece of nature is full of tiny details of life and absolutely fascinating to the children. Truth is that Garden Mania is not a fully natural environment but, if you look closer, it has plenty of elements to offer in order to stand as a good alternative for real forests. Moreover, with its set up, almost like a labyrinth encircled with tens of species of herbs and flowers, it can be specially interesting for children. The tools are carefully chosen to support activities that can be carried out in Garden Mania, some of which have already been done there with children that come from time to time with their schools for a single visit. My intention however is to build a stronger relationship over time, throughout a series of scheduled visits in which children can earn the different tools as they complete activities, eventually engaging them with the garden. More than that, the toolkit is also meant to unfold their interest for all the things that nature has to offer, and learn from them. The goal is to have them look closer at their natural surroundings and discover its hidden beauty, in a sort of romantic way that remind us the ancient botanical studies and documentations. Having these visits to the garden as a starting point, engage them with the act of appreciation towards nature and hopefully, make them future catalysts of a way of living more conscious, balanced and respectful with nature.

a .T HE

K I T

3. 4. 8. 9.

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1. Color chip 2. Serendipity camera 3. Explorerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vest 4. Explorerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s map 5. Scissors 6. Transfer pipette

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7. Pencil and brushes 8. Amulet holder 9. Pots 10. Mortar and pestle 11. Serendipity diary

12.

b.P ROTOT Y P IN G In the following pages I would like to give you a hint into what it was like to prototype the kit. Although it was the first prototype, it was also the only one, so I put all my consideration on having a high quality finishing. At this point, the camera became the main focus, since it was the element that required more development. The working part is composed of an Arduino Uno, a SD shield and a TTL serial JPG camera. Regarding the casing, I opted for a handmade wooden case, for several reasons: firstly because I believe that the quality and look of the materials given to children has an influence in attracting them, satisfying them and keeping their attention, as well as for instilling in the kids a sense of appreciation towards quality. Secondly, because it was a big goal for the semester to work more â&#x20AC;&#x153;outsideâ&#x20AC;? of the screen and enjoy the benefits of hands-on manufacturing process, as well as to practice my skills working with wood, a material that fascinates me. The same idea has been applied to the rest of the elements of the toolkit, such as the explorers vest, the diary (stitched by hand) and the pots, some of which were made in transparent perspex and sandblasted in the workshop. Their delicate look is meant to have an influence in the perceived value of the content, inspiring in children a careful selection and handling of the flowers, leaves and such. The result is a crafty looking set which I am quite proud about.

c. G E N E R A L

O BJE C T I V E S

The toolkit can be described as the physicalization of an integrated and interdisciplinary educational project that, along the theme of â&#x20AC;&#x153;nature explorationâ&#x20AC;?, strives to merge handson experience with the natural world and the development of basic competences traditionally linked to school, such as arts, science, history or languages, among others. An unique, child-centered learning experience that, far from the over structured education based on books and tests, has the following general objectives: - Facilitate the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s developing inquiry and trigger in them the disciplines of observation and discovery, raising their understanding of the world around them. - Develop their aesthetic and sensorial competence in relationship with the living environment - Raise their awareness about the decisive importance of preserving the natural environment, and give them clues for how to do it. - Support and expand the uniqueness of every child, as well as their self-esteem. - Help the children become more competent physically and contribute to their ability to asses risk. - Strengthen their communication and cooperation skills. - Have them learn without realizing they are learning, through semi structured play. - Give them the frame to find joy and solace in the natural world and discover the benefits of outdoor activities by themselves.

d . A C T IVI T I E S The general objectives are accomplished throughout the completion of the activities presented in the following pages, 4 main activities for which the toolkit has been developed and that can be complemented with as many related exercises as the teachers, parents or the teachers themselves can think of, among which, some of them are proposed in the present chapter. The activities can be performed during scheduled visits at Garden Mania with their parents and the school, as well as anywhere in the outside world. However, it is in the urban garden where the book of activities is composed (based on the season and the age of the children) and where the kids are given the tools as they complete the exercises, as a way to keep their motivation and engagement. After that, they can keep the tools and freely use them in any given context. The tools provided, aimed at children from 5 to 12 years old, facilitate the roleplaying aspect of the learning and encourage the necessary care and attention for the manipulation of the natural resources. The difference relies on the activities that can be carried out with them, as well as the degree of awareness and depth that children of different ages can get to through the completion of such activities.

COLOR

S CAV E N G E R

H U N T

Can we teach children about aesthetics engaging them in a color hunting journey through the garden? Can they experience and document the changes in their natural environment over time through color? The color chip is one of the main elements of the toolkit. It contains a carefully chosen set of colors that children can use to explore the garden, becoming aware of the different colors, its hues and nuances.

Location in the map: the only activity tied to Garden Mania. Using the map of the garden as a background and overlaying transparent acetate, kids can use the sticky dots in the back of the color chip to locate (by coordinates) the colors they have spotted in the garden, similar to how they would do in the battleship game. A great exercise to train their location skills! Age range: 7 to 12.

Think of analogies: with this activity kids are encouraged to make associations between the colors they have spotted and things in the world they can think of with the same color, as well as the connotations that these colors have to them. What do this color remind you off? Can you recall any other thing with the same color? This way children can exercise their associative memory and communication skills. It can be surprising the associations they make! Age range: 5 to 9.

2 .

B OTA N Y

CO L L E C T I O N

Real explorers did not only take pictures or draw illustrations of the things they discovered, but also kept samples of their most dazzling and mysterious findings. Species with unique forms, essences and color combinations common in the place they were discovered, but exotic and treasured in the place they were taken too. Given a very few tools in the toolkit, like pots and scissors, children can experience the feelings of those ancient explorers by hunting the flowers, seeds or fruits they find more enigmatic, preciousâ&#x20AC;Ś or dangerous!

Amulet holder: nature is full of tiny details to be discovered if ever we look close enough. Given a very small glass pot with a cord for the neck, children can collect small natural elements for their potential magic quality! This elements, if chosen carefully, will protect them along the exploration journey. The goal is to have them look at things closer and appreciate its details. Age range: 5 to 12. Perfume making: although aroma is usually the key to our memories, the sense of smell is often neglected in everyday life activities. Benefiting from the fact that all herbs and plants in Garden Mania are well known and controlled by the people responsible for the garden, the stimulation of olfactory and tongue sensitivity by giving children things to taste, smell and make perfumes with would be an interesting activity. This way they could also exercise their associative memory, by trying to associate new smells and flavors with the well known ones. Age range: 5 to 12.

Mashing and mixing: children naturally love mashing and mixing. In their heads, a mingle of mud and leaves can easily become a delicious feast...or a potion!, with its magical powers... Giving them the freedom and tools to do so, and encouraging them to create stories around it, we can contribute to their creative growth. Moreover, the different elements to collect can be given to them in the form of a scavenger hunt, which can make the whole process a real adventure! Age range: 5 to 9.

Herbarium: what else can be more poetic than an old style herbarium, a collection of plants preserved dry to keep their shape and color? All these dry leaves and flowers perpetually “buried” among the papers of ancient books… Who does not remember opening an old dictionary and being delighted with the image of a four-leaf clover kept in there at the age of 9? With the flower press and the diary, children can immerse themselves in the discovery and classification of different species of herbs, plants and flowers, as well as the analysis of their parts in real instead of through illustrations. Age range: 7 to 12.

Autumn collection: collection of leaves in autumn for their classification is a classical exercise that is often carried out in schools, but within the frame of the proposed exploration and the given tools, this activity can have an extra meaning for them. Undulate, serrate, dentate or palmate leaves are only some of the classifications available, and the leaves can of course be kept in the diary. Age range: 5 to 9.

Botanical museum: beautiful colors, shapes and details. They can be easily neglected if we just pass by, but when gathered together, an exhibition of botanical elements can “blossom” like a Keukenhof garden in spring, but with many more varieties of flowers. It is quite amazing how many different colorful flowers, leaves and seeds can be collected in a cold winter morning! The different assortment of pots allow children to become “museum curators” by carefully choosing which pot is more suitable for the showcase of an specific specie: translucent for the “dangerous” plants, perfectly transparent for the more delicate and elegant ones. Age range: 7 to 12.

3 . P IG ME N T A N D A RT M A K I N G In a not too distant past, all dyes and paints had to be obtained from the natural world, directly from animals, minerals and plants. Pigments can be extracted from almost anything in nature. The resulting colours may not always be as bright as those obtained from chemical sources, but they have a beauty and subtlety of their own. Using the small mortar and pestle they can grind the flower petals, leaves and soil into natural pigments with the addition of a few drops of water. With a little creativity and the artistic tools included in the kit, the outside world can become an infinite storage of freely available supplies for their creative explorations! “Unstructured ‘art play’ using a wide variety of inexpensive materials, allows students to get their hands dirty and express themselves creatively in ways that are not always possible during class time. Moreover students enjoy the freedom of personal expression and artistic experimentation in contexts that are not tied to classroom instruction, grading, or their teacher’s approval” (Dansk, 2010, p.177).

Color studies: using the serendipity diary, children can do their own color studies and document the different dyes they can extract from the infinite natural resources available. It is magic to see how some red flowers give you intense blue colors when smashed or how green, one of the most widely available colors to our sight, it is not so easy to achieve in form of pigment! Can we mix yellow from marigolds and blue from blueberries to make it!? Age range: 7 to 12.

Discovery revival: children are often very attached to the pictures taken by themselves, regardless its quality (to some extent). Printing the pictures from previous explorations in black and white and give them a new life by painting with the self-made pigments can be a great exercise, in a sort of romantic way of reviving their own expeditions. Age range: 5 to 12.

Imaginary compositions: kids are good at seeing imaginative things where adults just don’t see anything but reality. By taking leaves, flowers or whatever other natural element they have collected, children can make compositions and give new life to the inanimate elements around them by drawing with the pigments they have made or using any other writing tool. In their minds, a bipartite leaf can easily become the skirt of a princess and a lobate leaf, the beard of an ancient magician. For the smaller ones, the exercise can begin with the association of the form of the leaves with geometric figures familiar to them. Age range: 7 to 12.

Natural colors art: based on the range of colors more available at the garden at a specific period of time, children can make their own paintings and self portraits. This activities can easily be connected with an art history class in which they discover about Pablo Picasso’s blue period or Monet’s “ultraviolet” paintings. Age range: 7 to 12.

Botanical illustration: the art of depicting the form, colour, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolors paintings, is an art that has recently experienced a sort of renaissance. Using the tools available, children can color illustrations of the plants, herbs and flowers which they have just withdrawn the colors from! Moreover, neither pistils, stamens and petals of the same plant have the same colors, nor they give the same pigment when smashed, which is magic for anyone but especially for children. Age range: 5 to 9.

Texture exploration: natural material found outdoors do not only have an interesting range of colors and shapes, but also textures. By rubbing with a pencil on a paper on top of the natural elements, children can construct their own catalog of natural textures, sparking their curiosity. Age range: 5 to 12.

DOC UM E N TAT I O N

Real explorations are not complete without graphic and written documentation of the findings. That is what the serendipity camera and diary are for. While the diary includes the activities (previously chosen based on the age of the kid) as well as the place for the written record of these activities, the camera takes care of the visual archive of the exploration, by snapping a picture automatically every minute.

Travel history: after the journey, it is time to take the camera back home or at school and see which surprises it holds. Part of the beauty is in waiting until the moment they can actually download and see the pictures. A selection of the pictures and the argumentation of their choices are part of the activity. The goal is that they discover the beauty and magic of serendipity, as well as the beauty of waiting for a reward, and reflect upon that. Age range: 7 to 12.

Document changes: observe and document the passage of time throughout the changes along the different stations. Usually seasons are described in school books as stiff and tight periods of the year very different among them. But the truth is that winter, specially in some places is far from being snowy and white, being usually closer in look to autumn, but simply colder. By overlaying the transparent maps made along with the visits to the garden, as well as keeping the different species in their diary organized by date, children can have a more realistic view into the changes of the seasons. Age range: 5 to 9.

Storytelling: a great exercise can be to encourage children to attach a story to some of the objects collected. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Magic pinecone when planted grows a tree that causes all who sit under it to fall asleep and have vivid dreamsâ&#x20AC;? (Smith, 2008). The aim is to not only allow their imagination to flow, but to help them craft something concrete and with borders out of this creative stream. Age range: 7 to 12.

Vocabulary: all the activities previously described are not only a great opportunity for children to learn things in their language but also in the foreign languages they are starting to study at school. Beginning to get in contact with new vocabulary in english as they go on with the activities can make a huge difference in their learning of the new language. Age range: 7 to 12.

Self evaluation: learning is not complete when the exercises are finished, that is why the diary includes, next to each activity, space for the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self evaluation and reflection. What did I learn? Which difficulties did I found? How did I work? How did I change? How did I feel throughout the activity? The objective is that they become more aware of the intention of the exercises and make the most out of their completion. Age range: 7 to 12.

Design new activities: search for and propose new activities to be carried out with the toolkit. By doing a real brainstorm together or by themselves, children can come up with exercises they would like to do to extend the possibilities of the toolkit. Age range: 7 to 12.

58 Pictures from the Serendipity camera

e . E VA LUAT I O N

O F

T H E

Two interviews and an afternoon play session with two children were carried out in order to validate and complement the concept. Based on the feedback received during the Final Demo Days, I focused my effort in two aspects: accuracy of the tools and activities proposed, as well as integration with curricula. The intention was to bring the project further, from a set of toys to a well balanced and thought through educational toolkit. Actually, the series of activities proposed in the previous chapter were mostly drawn from the interview with two spanish teachers, responsible of children from 0 to 5 and from 6 to 12 years old respectively, after the prototype was made and a first draft of the serendipity diary was printed. As for the validation with children, two spanish kids aged 10 (a boy and a girl) were gathered in a cold but sunny christmas afternoon, during which the children did some color search using the color palette, gathered a wide variety of herbs, plants and flowers of their interest, and made some art with the pigments extracted from them. After the activities, they answered some questions to me regarding their experience and the elements of the toolkit. The conclusions of this activity are the following: Although the beginning was a bit confusing (“What do we exactly have to look for?” Saúl asked) it was only of a second. When I said “flowers, leaves, plants or anything that you find interesting”, they quickly started literally running towards it. I can say that there was a pretty low entry threshold. The first thing I noticed was that it is probably a two people game more than a one person game, since handling all the tools at the same time (color chip, scissors, color palette and pots) can be a little difficult. Still, if one kid is playing on his/her own he/she can find the way by doing one thing at a time and using the pockets of the vest. Actually, there seem to be an interesting collaborative play aspect, specially for the younger ones to start practicing the act of sharing an activity and not focusing entirely on their own. I also have the feeling that both the activities and the crafty look of the toolkit are closer to the general interest of girls rather than boys. Still, this as-

CO N C E P T

pect does not completely depend on the gender or even the age, but on the kind of kid. Whereas the girl was super eager to continue with the exercises, even when the sunlight was gone and the day was turning into night, without having lost a bit of the excitement she had at the very beginning; the boy tend to go and play in the playground next to which we were doing the activities after an hour and a half. He is himself a child more used to play indoors, exactly the one to whom the use of the toolkit can really make a difference. In fact, one of the most interesting questions for the future is how can I make the toolkit more appealing to boys, without turning it into a gender-segregationist game. The addition of binoculars, a belt for the tools or a torch for night exploration could be some extra elements to consider in this sense. As for the tools, the color chip worked extremely well. They were quick finding the colors and even if these didn’t really match, they would just stick to the most similar one without worrying too much about it. All my doubts regarding whether or not they would be bored or frustrated with the exercise were suddenly gone. With regard to the physicalization of the color chip, they used it more like a booklet than an accordion leaflet, however the different sections were still easy to pass as if they were pages and I can see how it was easier and more enjoyable that the traditional fan decks of colors. One of the things that powerfully surprised me was the use they gave to the diverse set of pots. Given a series of diversified small bottles, the children quickly decided to keep what they found to be the most beautiful flowers in the small, transparent glass pots, almost like treasuring them. On the other hand, the translucent bottle was for them the “high-risk bottle” in which they would keep what they thought to be a poisonous leaf (a black-dotted clover leaf). Yet another proof of the great faculty of imagining that kids have, the ability to form new images and associations in their mind. My reasons to give them different kinds of delicate pots were related with care that I wanted them to put in the manipulation of the natural elements, which they did. The camera, although it was a well appreciated

element of the toolkit, is the element that could be improved to a further extent. On the one hand because it should give the children the opportunity to take pictures voluntarily, which would allow them to really document the details they want. On the other hand because during the hazardous shooting, a little feedback (probably a sound) would be appreciated in order to allow children to take some control over the frame.

Attention spam. All together, the activities can take very long time, time in which the smallest children would probably get distracted much more often than the oldest ones.

As for the vest, some minor aspects could be improved, such as the depth and safety of the pockets and their location. Children have the tendency to start running around, especially when they are excited about the current activity, and as a consequence some of the the pots started to fall off. Something, on the other hand, easy to solve by adding some depth or fasteners to the pockets.

they worked, how their perception changed…

Wooden tools used for the artistic activities, such as the mortar and pestle, clearly needed to be coated for them not to absorb the pigments as the flowers start to release their liquid. There are other minor problems, specially related to the logistics beyond the kit, like the time it takes for the self made ink to dry or the fact that they tend to accumulate many things for which there aren’t enough pots. Some tools that could be added, according to the children, are tweezers, magnifying glass, binoculars, a water bottle and a torch. As confirmed by the teachers, the toolkit could work with kids from 5 or 6 to almost 12. However, the difference between the youngest and the oldest ones would be on:

Depth and awareness. Whereas small children get amazed with activities like the pigment making and smashing stuff in general, the older kids are more able to connect with the meaning behind the activities: what they learned, how

Roleplaying. Smaller kids get into the “role” or “mood” easier. Their capacity to image and fantasy-play is overwhelming … whereas the older ones are more concerned with aesthetics or social roles (gender roles). Cooperative play. Kids of younger age have more difficulties to share the tools, while older ones would quickly enjoy playing different roles in the search. Task complexity. Whereas younger kids would need to focus on one task at a time and have some more guidance, older ones can easily figure out what to do next and anticipate what they can do after with the different things they find on their way. To finalize, it was a satisfaction to see that from the moment they start playing around with the kit they watched closer and paid more attention to the natural world, which was the original intention. They became fascinated by many things they had never noticed, such as species of plants with multi colored leaves and types of clover that we had never seen before, which made them excited.

f. F E ASA B I L I T Y

O F

T H E

In the following lines I intend to give an overview of the commercial viability of the concept, a down to earth vision into what it could be like to make the concept feasible, especially concerning the stakeholder. Now, in my previous education I spent quite some time learning how to make extensive calculations of production costs, based on information such as the cost of labour and estimations from manufacturing companies that I would contact. Unfortunately I do not have such information this time, neither it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t my intention for this semester to repeat these tedious calculations. However, I would like to use the present chapter to express the ways I see how this concept could become a reality. The first thing I would like to say is that, in its current form, the toolkit might not be commercially viable. Almost all the elements have been made by hand and the electronic components are not necessarily cheap. Although the process could of course be streamlined and the components made to fit the specific purpose of the camera, I still can presume a fairly expensive outcome for the parents to invest in. One of the options to overcome this obstacle could be to introduce it as school material, following the idea of it as the physicalization of an educational project, what could make it subsidize by the government. Another option, closer to the interest of my stakeholder, is to make it part of their product line. Within their recently approved business plan there are two aspects that are interesting for me concerning this point. First of all the fact that they are intensively working on the development of a line of products from which to make money as well as promote the garden. Secondly, their firm intention to perform, starting next season, more and more workshops with children in a more

CO N C E P T structured and systematic way, exactly the kind of activities for which the toolkit has been developed. For them, this project could be a key element to engage schools and other stakeholders and make this point of their business plan become a reality. Nonetheless, Garden Mania is an organization with not a lot of funding behind, which could make the development of the toolkit hard for them in economic terms if economical support does not arrive. A way to make it happen could be the association of the kit with the subscriptions to the garden, a sort of crowdfunding in which members of the garden, depending on how much they regularly pay for their memberships, can get different deals for participating in the activities of the garden or get different elements of the toolkit for their children. A conventional crowdfunding campaign, on the other hand, might not be an outrageous idea either, especially when a high quality prototype is already made and behind it there is a young but ambitious organization like Garden Mania, with a clear point for an alternative way of education in relation with nature. Another alternative, although not the most ideal one under my point of view, might be that a limited amount of sets, made with not a lot of investment, would be kept in the garden and used, shared or borrowed by its members or the students that come with the schools. This could make the toolkit affordable to produce for Garden Mania, but would keep the children from fully enjoying the kit beyond the visits to the garden. In any case, and judging Desireeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reaction during the Final Demo Days, not only the look seems to fit their identity, but the whole concept behind The Secret Garden Toolkit is also in line with their vision and their intention to instill in the citizens a new way to look at nature. At least she stated her interest to give it a try and make an effort to integrate it in their plan.

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Screenshot from the movie Moonrise Kingdom

5 .GENER AL

CONCLUS I ONS Looking at it with some perspective it looks to me that, if not more, the current project is at least a nice alternative to many ugly and over designed explorer toolkits that parents can find in the market for their children nowadays, plastic devices that, however catching they might be for the eye of the kids at first, quickly become part of the list of abandoned toys. Besides that, I would like to think of the further relevance of The Secret Garden Toolkit as a set of toys that not only stimulates creativity, but that helps modern children experience the same freedom I enjoyed roaming wild as a small boy in my rural summers, allowing them to find a better balance between the time spent inside their homes and outside in contact with nature, where they can find deeper connections than the WIFI. The tiny and slightly romantic activities that come with the toolkit, such going outside to collect and dry plants, or slowly withdrawing pigments from them, can have a lot of meaning to the children and to anyone, in the context of this rather complex and slightly superficial world that we live in. They can help us reconnect with who we are and who we were not so many years ago, feeding the primitive instincts we still carry inside of us. At least this is what they did to me. In the barely four months that I spent developing this project, the only fact of being regularly in contact with the garden, visiting it for this or that activity, made my sensitivity towards nature and its silent beauty grow exponentially. I discovered the amazing quantity of diverse details that a small patch of land can offer, if ever you look close enough; and how during a season that is hostile for plants to develop and flowers to blossom,

there are still species, more than we think, that adapted and won the battle against the external conditions. In short, I learnt and enjoyed a lot, and I am honestly hoping that, with the toolkit, the same can happen to children. With The Secret Garden Toolkit children are given a framework for discovery, but they are not restricted. By definition, the toolkit supports a relatively open and independent play, and to tools are not important because of what they are for, but because of what the children can do with them. The activities of the diary do nothing but give extra help and a link to the learning objectives, but in any case are rules or boundaries that stop their creativity. In general, and as a designer, I am more than satisfied having developed a concept that has the potential to not only make a difference to my client, but to the world; a concept that supports sustainability beyond stereotypes, by supporting a more sustainable life. This satisfaction is bigger after seeing the warm welcome that the concept had among its viewers, both during the exhibition and after.

As an appendix, I would like to say that the camera could have become an entire project on itself. Not only for me, but for the children to experience what it is like to make a gadget with their own hands and the benefits of learning by doing. Knowing first hand what is inside of a camera, understanding how it works and actively participating in its development could very much satisfy their curiosity as well. But that is something for next time.

6.P ER SONAL The first thing I want to say about the design project presented by means of this report is that it was not only a design project but a research into my own creative process. As stated before in this document, the challenge for me was to make sense of a process that started from scratch and with which I was not confident enough. At this point I can say that I am growing according to the expectations set in my PDP concerning this aspect. For almost the first time in my life as a designer I felt under control of my design process (with exceptions, of course) and aware of all the steps I was going through at every moment. Along the semester I could see the project growing in a fews direction, but in a fairly straight line, rather than in never-ending circles, as it used to happen. This has a lot to do with the fact that I pushed decision making, the aspect that used to hold me back, resulting in less friction and more flow, and realizing that there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a single solution to the project in question, but infinite, and that I have to look for the one that resonates with me.

I see there is a need for methodology to find the key aspects during the research, and IDEOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s methods worked for me during this semester. However, I understood that quality in the research is much more relevant than quantity, and that I can not face the projects anymore as if I was looking for a treasure, THE treasure; hunting for more and more clues in order to find the definitive and only answer, and getting frustrated when I could not find it. Instead of trying to encounter the evidences around the corner, I now believe more in the power of reflection on action after the iterations, the potential of the sources of inspiration (for unconnected and diverse they might seem) and the importance of staying true to myself as a way to find MY answer to the problem, while being relevant to others. All this has finally led to much more awareness of the present and

understanding of the moves that the project was requiring at every moment, hopefully having an impact in the confidence I will have in future projects, and setting the first stepping stones for the life-long refinement of this process. As usual, there is plenty of room for improvement in aspect such as the balance between thinking by doing and thinking on a desk, as well as the equilibrium between pressure and joy along the process. Besides the decision making, I have to learn how to go on without being ready, something quite difficult for an analytical mind as mine. I would also like to point out the difficulty for a detail driven person as I am to deal with a toolkit so full of elements, each one of them with a lot of details to look at. I suffered more than I should have trying to complete the kit I had in my mind while staying true to my standards. I probably need to let my expectations be a driving force instead of a handicap. However, I must say that I also enormously enjoyed making more things with my hands in general (from the vest to the bookbinding) and working with wood in particular, applying techniques that I had never used before and experiencing the solace of having body and mind working in line. Surprisingly for me, the same happened when working with electronics, although trying to figure out the code was still too difficult for me to enjoy it as much. However, and concerning the integration of technology, I have reached my finish line for this semester with the implementation of both the knowledge about the components and the understanding of the logics of the programing language into the camera. Although it should work better (especially in terms of resolution of the image and quality of the colors), I believe that the integration (for me the really important aspect) is achieved.

REFL E CT I O NS

Arias Correa, A., Arias Correa, D., Navaza Blanco, V. & Rial Fernández, D. Traballo por Proxectos en Infantil, Primaria e Secundaria. Galicia: Consellería de Educación e Ordenación Universitaria da Xunta de Galicia. Barkham, P. (2014). Forest schools: fires, trees and mud pies. The Guardian, 2014. [online] Retrieved at: <http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/09/the-school-in-the-woodsoutdoor-education-modern-britain> [Accessed December 2014]. de Boer, J. (2013). Trend 8: Urban Farming Becomes Serious Business [online]. Retrieved at: <http://popupcity.net/trend-8-urban-farming-becomes-serious-business/> [Accessed September 2014] Brand, R. & Rochi, S. (2011). Rethinking Value in a Changing Landscape: a Model for Strategic Reflection and Business Transformation. Retrieved at: <http://www.design.philips.com/philips/ shared/assets/design_assets/pdf/nvbD/ april2011/paradigms.pdf> [Accessed September 2014]

Dansk, S. G. (2010). Asphalt to Ecosystem. Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation. Oakland: New Village Press. Desain, C. & van Wetering, Michael (2013). Trendrapport 2014-2015. Technologiekompas voor het onderwijs. Zoetermeer: Kennisnet 2013. Five Borough Farm, 2014. Impact of Urban Agriculture [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www. fiveboroughfarm.org/impact/>. [Accessed September 2014] Joan Twiss, MA, Joy Dickinson, BS, CHES, Shirley Duma, MA, Tanya Kleinman, BA, Heather Paulsen, MS, & Liz Rilveria, MPA (2003). Community Gardens: Lessons Learned From California Healthy Cities and Communities. American Journal of Public Health 2003 Sep; 93(9): 1435-8. Louv, Richard (2005). Last Child in the Woods. Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books. McLendon, R. (2014). How “friluftsliv” can help you reconnect with nature. [online] Retrieved at:

7 . R E F E R E N C E

<http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/how-friluftsliv-can-helpyou-reconnect-with-nature> [Accessed January 2015]. Russel, S. A. (2005). Review of the book Last Child in the Woods. Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Retrieved at: <http:// www.nrdc.org/OnEarth/05sum/reviews2.asp> [Accessed January 2015] TrendOne (2013). Macro - Trends: Urban Countrification [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www. trendone.com/en/trends/trenduniversum/ macro-trends/macro-trend/urban-countrification.html> [Accessed September 2014] TrendOne (2013). Macro - Trends: Organic Products [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www. trendone.com/en/trends/trenduniversum/ macro-trends/macro-trend/organic-products. html> [Accessed September 2014] TrendOne (2013). Macro - Trends: Local Niche [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www.trendone. com/en/trends/trenduniversum/macro-trends/macro-trend/local-niche.html>

LIST

[Accessed September 2014] TrendOne (2013). Macro - Trends: Eco Cities [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www.trendone.com/ en/trends/trenduniversum/macro-trends/ macro-trend/eco-cities.html> [Accessed September 2014] TrendOne (2013). Macro - Trends: Slow Life [online]. Retrieved at: <http://www.trendone.com/ en/trends/trenduniversum/macro-trends/ macro-trend/slow-life.html> [Accessed September 2014] Tule Elk Park School (2014). The Garden [online]. Retrieved at http://www.tuleelk.org/#!the-garden/c7gl. [Accessed November, 2014]. Smith, K. (2008). How to Be an Explorer of the World. Portable Life Museum. USA: Penguin Books Ltd. Stephenson, S. M. (2010). Birth to Three, a Superior Environment. In The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three. Arkata: The Michael Olaf Company.

8.AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Bart Hengeveld - Desiree Hammen - Toni Doodle - Lise Alix - Kai Wischniowski - Florike Martens - Willy Leufgen - Martin Hup - Esther - María Vazquez - María Dolores - Rosa Mary - Saúl - Andrea - the other students in the working group - my family, friends and beloved ones.

Lampenschirm ~ Michael Sowa

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first timeâ&#x20AC;? T. S. Eliot