With the cold, grey winter months already upon us, a partnership between UC and the Cincinnati Nature Center is planting seeds of nature education that will take root next year. Final plans ensure that Sigma Sigma Commons on UC’s Clifton campus has some extra green come early summer.
Focused towards children aged three to five, the new PlayScape is a nature-centric playground for children who attend the Arlitt Center as well as kids from the surrounding community. The 10,000-square-foot environmental haven includes a tree house, a stream and a bird-watching hideaway. Play elements are all focused on giving children places to learn about the world around them. Through a log fort, a stream that children can turn on and off and a sculpture with gardening tools and science equipment, the PlayScape allows children to develop skills that urban young people often never come across.
The Arlitt Center not only provides childcare, it also provides opportunities for future educators to get hands-on experience in early childhood education. The PlayScape features an observation deck so that educators-in-training can watch children develop their motor skills and play in a much different setting from most urban playgrounds. The PlayScape also allows researchers to watch and learn how children develop skills and interest in sciences as children will be able to plant, cultivate and harvest food in the vegetable garden.
The PlayScape is the second of its kind in Cincinnati – the first is the Marge & Charles Schott Nature PlaceScape at Cincinnati Nature Center. It was made possible through a $330,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will be funded over two years.
Do Good:
Visit: The Cincinnati Nature Center and explore all they have to offer.
Volunteer: and give a hand teaching the public about everything in the Nature Center
Donate: to help preserve the nature around Cincinnati.
By Evan Wallis
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