Thomas Metcalf School, an Illinois State University lab school, unveiled a new playground Tuesday that its students helped design.
The fourth-grade makerspace class in spring 2024 collected ideas for replacements for a playground that was condemned last spring. Through their own ideas as well as a school-wide survey, the playground was completed with funding from ISU’s College of Education.
Brittney Tarr, who teaches the makerspace class for pre-K through fourth grade, said the class had already learned how to do engineering design for things like garden redesigns.
“The kids are kind of used to going through a whole cycle of research, then they go through the planning stage and, like the creation stage. So they've already been trained on how to do that whole process. This was just much more large-scale than they're used to,” said Tarr.
Younger makerspace students drew out blueprints and made cardboard models of desired features. After that, the older students, who now are in fifth grade, combined them into a cohesive plan.
“Everyone's definitely been really excited, because we've all been waiting a while to get it built,” said Harper Funk, an eighth-grader from Normal.
During the process of designing the playground, Tarr said her students were mindful of the needs of the wide range of students — pre-K through eighth grade — who would want to enjoy the space into the future.
“One kid would be like, ‘A bunch of stairs would be cool,’ and the kid next would be like, ‘What if someone's in a wheelchair? We need some ramps.’ So I was pleasantly surprised how little I had to regulate them because they just had an innate understanding of what would work for such a large community,” said Tarr.
Student surveys also were part of the process.
Tess Kendall, a seventh-grader from Bloomington, said the survey allowed students to respond to prompts such as how many slides they would like it to have, whether they wanted a zipline, or what theme and colors the equipment should have.
After students settled on their design plans in May, Tarr spent summer break coordinating with the state and university to ensure the final product reflected student wishes.
“I'm really proud of our admin for the most part,” said Tarr. “They understood that the kids play on this space, and it's their space, and they kind of just went with what the kids wanted. And there wasn't a ton of argument to have on behalf of like me to advocate for the kids.”
Fundraising is ongoing for another play area in need of replacement. The Birds Give Back campaign has raised $3,645 toward a $10,000 goal.
Tarr said the process gave students the confidence that they could do things not many others imagine they can at that age.
“I think that a lot of us assume that kids can't do big things, but the moment adults let them do big things, they know that they're capable,” said Tarr.
