COLLABORATIVE DESIGN FOR UNSTRUCTURED PLAY
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
DESCRIPTION
This SSHRC-funded project brings together the following collaborators:
Undergraduate and Graduate Design students at NSCAD University; Undergraduate
and Graduate students in Chemical Engineering at Dalhousie University along
with Early Childhood Educators, Pre-Primary and Grade Two students from Halifax
Grammar School; Lake City Woodworkers, a Halifax-based social enterprise that
support individuals with mental health challenges.
Recognizing the environmental harm of plastic,
the potential opportunities in bioplastics and the creativity of children, the
goal of this project is to use a collaborative design methodology to marry
materials research, novel fabrication technologies, and design innovation to
produce a toy prototype. The goal of this project is to design and fabricate
children’s toys through a collaborative design process between NSCAD University
Design Students and Early Childhood Educators at Halifax Grammar School.