Meeting point

Introducing the problem

Discussion about social problems that children face during school breaks.

Defining different kinds of social problems with students. It's also important to talk about the positive behaviour that there is in the school playground.

Shadowing school playground

Students will form groups of three. Each group will have one break to observe and write down any social problems in the playground. Also. Positive behaviour should be observed.

Making a histogram

Each team gets to calculate how many times one specific social problem/positive behaviour has occurred. They will draw, build from Lego or use Post-Its to make a bar for a histogram. The class will combine all bars to create one large histogram. Also, a title and legends for the bars should be made. See example histogram.

Analysing the histogram

When the histogram is ready, the histogram is analysed together.

Finding solutions

Discussion as to why these kinds of problem occur. Kids can find their own solutions to tackling these problems.

The teacher introduces the meeting point with playground games as one of the solutions. The meeting point is a place where students can find new friends while playing playground games.

Building a meeting point

Groups start to think of a name for the meeting point. After thinking, the class votes on the meeting point names.

Groups get new tasks:

• 3 or 4 groups start to design and build games for the meeting point (see worksheet 2). Games could be, for example, the Finnish game Mölkky (see building instructions and rules for Mölkky), dominoes or Yahtzee.
• 1 group starts to design and build the meeting point area
• 1 group starts to think about rules for meeting point
• 1 group does documentation with iPads or mobile devices
• 1 group designs an advertising campaign for the meeting point (this also includes asking permission from the head teacher, etc.)

Groups make their plans for working using the templates for children and start working.

This part can be also done with rotation of the groups to different tasks, for example every 20 minutes. This way, every student can work with all the tasks. When groups change their task, they continue to develop ideas other groups have started.

Grand opening

The meeting point is introduced to the whole school and the head teacher says few words. The rules of the meeting point are introduced.

Observation

After a couple of weeks, students observe the meeting point and make suggestions for improving it. There is also the possibility of measuring user numbers and of making histograms of the results etc. Students observe the meeting point and make suggestions for improving it.