Scientific concepts can be abstract for students in the younger school years. By using the playground that is a part of students’ everyday life you can investigate physical phenomena in a way that are close to the students. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how playground physics can clarify the physical concepts of gravity, centre of gravity, friction, equilibrium and balance. As a method for answering the purpose and questions qualitative interviews of four active teachers who have teach on the playground. Four students from grade two were observed when they conducted investigations of the concepts at five different stations. The results show that the teachers think that the playground can be used to clarify the concepts, by allowing the students to examine with the whole body and that it provides a joyful learning. At the same time the teachers believe that it is necessary to prepare in the classroom before you go outside. It is also a challenge that there may need to be more adults at hand outdoor as there are distractions that can take focus from the teaching. The observation shows the importance of structure in the teaching and opportunities to learn together by reasoning about investigations at the objects on the playground. / Naturvetenskapliga begrepp kan vara abstrakta för elever i de yngre skolåren. Genom att använda lekplatsen som är vardagsnära för eleverna kan man undersöka fysiska fenomen på ett elevnära sätt. Studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om hur lekplatsfysik kan tydliggöra de fysikaliska begreppen tyngdkraft, tyngdpunkt, friktion, jämvikt och balans för elever. Som metod för att besvara syftet och frågeställningar användes kvalitativa intervjuer av fyra verksamma lärare som undervisat på lekplatsen. En elevgrupp med fyra elever från årskurs 2 observerades när de genomförde undersökningar av begreppen på fem olika stationer. Resultatet visar att lärarna tycker att lekplatsen tydliggör begreppen genom att eleverna får undersöka själva med hela kroppen och att det ger ett lustfyllt lärande. Lärarna menar samtidigt att det är nödvändigt med förarbete i klassrummet. De menar även att det finns utmaningar som att man behöver vara fler vuxna ute samt att det finns distraktioner som tar fokus från undervisningen. Observationen visar på vikten av struktur i undervisningen och möjligheten till att lära tillsammans genom att resonera kring undersökningarna vid föremålen på lekplatsen.

Barn har rätt till att vara delaktiga vid utformningen av de stadsrum som påverkar barnen. I ett samhälle där barnkonventionen blivit lag behöver kommuner arbeta med barns åsikter och önskemål när barnens lekplatser och skolgårdar planeras. Hur man som planerare kan ta del av barns åsikter även i de yngre åldrarna kan vara tungrott. Yngre barn behöver mer stöttning när de ska få uttrycka sina åsikter. I denna uppsats kommer läsaren få läsa om forskning som finns kring ämnet om hur barn kan vara delaktiga, via olika modeller och verktyg. Läsaren kommer få ta del av de lagar och regelverk som idag finns i Sverige för att reglera att en fysisk planering. En workshop på en förskola har utförts och två intervjuer har hållits med anställda vid Burlövs kommun. Resultatet i denna studie visar att det går att involvera yngre barn vid fysisk planering. Yngre barn har mycket åsikter samt många idéer och tankar. Det kan dock vara av problematisk natur att arbeta med barn i ung ålder. Detta då yngre barn kan ha svårt att förstå sitt egenansvar samt att yngre barn kan ha svårt att vara självständiga i sina åsikter. / Children have the right to be involved in the design of urban spaces that affect them. In a society where the Convention on the Rights of the Child has become law, municipalities need to work with children's opinions and wishes when planning children's playgrounds and schoolyards. How planners can take account of children's opinions even at a younger age can be difficult. Younger children need more support when expressing their opinions. In this paper, the reader will read about research on the topic of how children can be involved, through different models and tools. The reader will learn about the laws and regulations that currently exist in Sweden to regulate physical planning. A workshop at a preschool has been conducted and two interviews have been held with employees at Burlöv municipality. The results of this study show that it is possible to involve younger children in spatial planning. Younger children have many opinions and many ideas and thoughts. However, it can be problematic to work with children at a young age. This is because younger children may have difficulty understanding their own responsibility and younger children may have difficulty being independent in their opinions.

Majoriteten av barn i Sverige tillbringar en stor del av sin vardag i förskolans kontext med dess struktur och ramar. Vår studie belyser hur barn kommunicerar, samspelar och leker i den strukturerade utemiljön med fokus på förskolegårdens gungplats. Syftet var att göra en jämförelse mellan hur barn upplever gungplatsen och hur vuxna tolkar barns sociala interaktioner i den fria leken. Studien vilar lika mycket på våra observationer av vad barnen gör, som vad barnen själva förmedlar i fokusgruppsamtalen. Vi lyfter fram den tillrättalagda förskolans utemiljö och dess betydelse, dels ur ett barnperspektiv och dels ur ett barns perspektiv. Ett barnperspektiv förutsätter att pedagogen ser barns perspektiv, men det går aldrig att bortse från pedagogens tolkningar (Halldén, 2007). När vi jämförde resultaten av våra metoder upptäckte vi att barnen ansåg att vi leker inte, vi bara gungar. I våra observationer tolkade vi att barn inte bara gungar utan även leker på gungorna och gungplatsen. .

Lekplatser förser barn med möjligheten att praktisera och utveckla sina sociala, emotionella, kognitiva och fysiska förmågor. Att tillhandahålla tillräckligt med lekplatser vilka också upplevs som tillgängliga är således en hörnsten för en hållbar planering. Denna uppsats utforskar barns tillgång till lekplatser iStockholm. Tillgängligheten undersöks inte bara med traditionella metriska mått, dvs. det fysiska avståndet, utan också med hjälp av space syntax-teorier och metoder som bättre skildrar det upplevda avståndet till lekplatsen. Användningen av space syntax i en barnkontext är relativt outforskat. Dennastudie bidrar därigenom till space syntax-litteraturen genom att utforska dess tillämpningspotential i ett bredare sammanhang. Resultaten antyder att Stockholm presterar långt under stadens egna rekommendationer, och studien mynnar ut i en diskussion om potentiella planeringskonflikter. Dessa konflikter uppstår i gränslandet mellan ambitionen att planera säkra lekplatser och ambitionen att planera lekplatser som upplevs lätta att navigera till, samtidigt som de ligger inom ett rimligt gångavstånd från hemmet. / Playgrounds provide children with the opportunity to practice and develop social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills. Providing enough playgrounds that also are perceived as accessible is thus a cornerstone of sustainable planning. This paper explores children's access to playgrounds in Stockholm. Accessibility is not only assessed using traditional metric measurements, i.e. the physical distance, but also with space syntax theories and methods capturing notions of perceived accessibility. The utilization of space syntax in the context of children is relatively unexplored. This study is therebycontributing to the space syntax literature by exploring the wider application potential of its methods. The results suggest that Stockholm performs well below the city's own recommendations, and the study proceeds into a discussion about possible planning conflicts. These conflicts are between the ambition to plan safe playgrounds and the ambition to plan playgrounds that are easy to navigate to, while also being within a reasonable walking distance from the home.

Meadows by the river Svratka - concept of landscape areal for public sport and recreation: ACTIVATION POINTS = insertion of impulses for developement od the area 3 LANDSCAPES - playgrounds by the city circle road, forest park by the riverside, city park in Jundrov CONNECTION - live relations between nearby qarters of the city Football academy The main T-shape building together with the pedestrian and alley forms its courtyards and so creates significant entrance to the park-area. The building connects the city and the landscape, between area of entrance and area of academy.

The main object of my diploma project is complex of schools in Czech city Ostrava on the place Černá louka (in English Black meadow). The plot is next to the city centre from one side, from the other side its in neighbourhood of nature across the river. At the moment the place is used as an gallery of miniatures. The whole area is mix of many functions, from living to shopping, market, gallery, theatre and many other. In 2010 there were a competition about Černá louka, a Dutch studio Maxwan won and designed a cultural cluster in the ring of buildings on Černá louka. They desided to place a school in our parcela, because its great connection between nature and city. I used this idea and worked on it. The main mass is composed by 5 objects - school, kindergarden, high school, gym and community centre. In the centre of whole complex there is a playground - it will play an active role in the daily life of schools. The gymnastics hall as such can perform as sqaure: a meeting place, a theatre, a room for ceremonies and festivals. At the same time it will form the connection between different functions of school.

The application of digital elements to traditional playgrounds can enhance children’s outdoor play and counteract the growing trend of sedentary activities. This work reports the implementation and evaluation of a playground installation which looks at sound as the modality that can provide new and engaging play experiences. The design of this system follows an open-ended approach that let the children create their own emerging game goals and rules. The sound design is first tested in a lab setting and later on in a Swedish preschool, with a particular focus on the stages of play (invitation, exploration, and immersion). 38 children between 2 and 6 years old participated in a field study that lasted for three days. Children’s engagement over time was quantified and field notes were taken during the whole evaluation. None of the children between 2 and 3 years old reached the immersion stage. On the other hand, children between 4 and 6 years old created their own rules showing parallel and collaborative play and, in some occasions, solitary play. The sound modality chosen proved to be effective to encourage children’s play in a first place. In a longer engagement perspective, the soundscape partly supported an immersive play. The selection of the sounds to be integrated in the system demonstrated to be as fundamental as the physical appearance of the playground installation. The results of this study show how the visual and auditory modalities can be effective in an open-ended interactive playground and report the limitations of this design. / Additionen av digitala element till traditionella lekplatser kan förstärka barns utomhuslek och motverka den växande trenden av stillasittande aktiviteter. Detta arbete beskriver genomförandet och utvärderingen av en lekplatsinstallation med ljud i fokus som den modalitet som kan tillhandahålla nya och engagerande lekupplevelser. Utformningen av denna lekplatsinstallation skedde ur ett fri lek-perspektiv där barn skapar egna mål och regler till sin lek. Ljuddesignen är först testad i en laboratoriemiljö och senare i en svensk förskola, med särskilt fokus på lekfaserna (invit-fasen, utforskande-fasen och uppslukad-fasen). 38 barn mellan 2 och 6 år deltog in en fältstudie som varade i tre dagar. Barns engagemang över tid kvantifierades och noteringar togs under hela utvärderingen. Inga av barnen mellan 2 och 3 år nådde uppslukad-fasen. Å andra sidan skapade barn mellan 4 och 6 år egna regler som visar på parallell och samspelslek och i några fall ensamlek. Den valda ljudmodaliteten visade sig vara effektiv för att uppmuntra barns lek till en början. På längre sikt understödde ljudlandskapet delvis lek av uppslukad karaktär. Valet av ljud integrerat i systemet visade sig vara lika fundamental som den fysiska uppenbarelsen av lekplatsinstallationen. Resultaten av denna studie visar hur de visuella och auditoriska modaliteterna effektivt kan vara designade i en interaktiv lekplats för öppen lek, och begränsningarna av denna design rapporteras.

Playing is the dominant activity in children's daily life, but is the playground still the place where children have their first encounter with societal roles, norms and values of today’s society, through the act of playing? The playground functions as the place where children are forced to educate themselves, in learning to develop, to make decisions, to solve problems, and to regulate emotions. They look for risks in order to test and explore their physical limits. In this research, I will be focusing on the existing playground in the street of my childhood home aiming to gain understanding as to whether or not the playground still fits the needs of children. Is there still space to discover the basic guidelines of social behaviour and finding out one's personal limits? Looking at today’s playground, I see an over-designed, completely protected, safe-in-the-grid play area which leaves no space for one’s own interpretation and imagination and is not at all a suitable space for testing out your own limits. The play objects are already placed in a concrete form and can only be used in one specific way, eliminating any space for personal initiative. I am curious about how these playground designs arose, and whether there is any kind of communication with children about their needs and desires in the context of play. Which parties decide where and how playgrounds are built in the urban landscape, and why playgrounds are not connected with their urban surroundings, but instead form separated and isolated entities. This detached space often does not meet the demands of the children, resulting in them abandoning the designated playing area, and finding play areas of their own, including streets and abandoned buildings or wastelands, sometimes close to traffic, where they chose to play instead. Making the playground as safe as possible by placing the different kind of play equipment behind a fence is actually resulting in its opposite safety in that the children are looking for a different kind of place to play freely. Aiming to answer these questions, I studied the work of Aldo van Eyck and Bruno Munari, both architects who worked on playgrounds and used primary shapes in urban architecture. I am also focussing on the work of Mariana Brussoni, who writes about the importance of the element of risk in playing, and how this affects a child’s development and social behaviour. For this research, I am working closely together with the municipality and NIJHA Playground Equipment Factory to get a better understanding of the origins of playgrounds. Adding to this research, I conducted many conversations with children from different cities and neighbourhoods, with the aim to find out what the perfect play area is for children and how that fits in the urban landscape, or more specifically, in my own street.

This thesis aims to introduce a design proposal providing a special light-colour-space experience for preschool aged children. At this age, the basic aspects of visual perception are well-developed. However, unlike adults, children do not possess the experience and memories that enable complete visual perception. My goal was to create a space where children can play and, in the meantime, meet various stimuli that they are not used to, broadening their visual sensitivity by utilizing the rhythm of light and colour combinations. Based on earlier studies, I investigate three main areas: children’s perspective, their relationship with colours, and the learning process itself that takes place in their brain while embracing knew knowledge. Conclusions drawn from the literature review are complemented by studies of forms, shadows, and materials. The design of the installation itself is presented through conceptual sketches and models. As the main motive of the installation I chose a circular labyrinth where, during wandering, new experiences, colours, forms, atmospheres, and emotions reveal themselves as one progresses towards the centre. Darkness too plays an important role in the design. The changes in light level follow the steps of this external and internal journey, until in the last layer of the labyrinth children can experience almost complete darkness in a relatively safe environment.

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