World renown IDEO, a global design think tank and design consultancy from Palo Alto is coming to HATCH to work with kids of the Gallatin Valley to envision and design the ultimate playground. The IDEO client list reads like a Fortune 100 list, and their innovative team have contributed over 1000 patents to our world, including the invention of the mouse, re-designing the travel experience for Virgin, breakthroughs in transporting donor organs, sustainable energy solutions, and more.
KIDS IMAGINING THE ULTIMATE PLAYGROUND! Ages 8-12.
Through the minds of a Toy Inventor
Saturday Oct. 3rd – 10am-1pm - Treehouse Kids Building – Rouse Ave. across from The Daily and Lone Mountain Gymnastics
Brendan Boyle, and Joe Wilcox of IDEO will conduct an interactive workshop with kids focused around design thinking and building. The core of the session will be IDEO’s user-centered design methodology through the lens of IDEO’s toy invention group. A design challenge coupled with hands-on learning will illustrate how innovation can transform real-world examples, right before your eyes. Brendan Boyle sits on the board of the non-profit National Institute for PLAY, where he focuses on bringing play-based techniques to innovation. He has published articles on brainstorming and innovation in the workplace on ABCnews.com, and has taught various classes in creativity and design at Stanford University as a consulting professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Under his leadership, IDEO licensed more than 125 toy, game, and youth concepts with leading toy manufacturers. Joe Wilcox is a toy Inventor and works as a mechanisms specialist. Joe also worked as an industrial designer for NASA, and at M.I.T. Aero-Astro Lab where he designed and fabricated the first mockup of the BioSuit for Dava Newman at the Manned-Vehicle Lab. The finished suit was featured in Time Magazine, WIRED magazine, and Discover Magazine.
As the kids ideas begin to take form, sketch artists from CTA Architects will be drawing concept boards, and then kids get to see their ideas come to life as they are prototyped. Final designs will be published, and posted online. Volunteers will be onsite to assist.
Thrive is partnering with Hatch to plan Kids Days. For 23 years, Thrive has designed programs based on the unique climate and culture of the local community to ensure optimal growth and development for all children in our area. The opportunity to work with Hatch to offer a day where kids can interact with folks like Joe from IDEO to conceptualize and design the ‘Ultimate Playground’ is the ‘ultimate collaboration’ for Thrive because it combines the goals of each organization to provide an amazing, experience for kids. Thrive’s signature programs: the Parent Place in Bozeman and Belgrade; CAP; Parent Liaison; Partnership and Girls for a Change nurture strong families resulting in successful children and a thriving community. Everyone benefits. Thrive has won many awards and distinctions including, Best Non-Profit in Bozeman 2009.
This workshop is free and open to the public, but space is limited to 50 children… Recommended Ages 8-12. RSVP is required! Please fill out the form below to register!
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I’ve rarely seen children having so much fun together as I did this Kid’s Day. The expression on their faces when they realized that they would actually be designing a playground in pairs and could use all the materials–Play-Doh, wood, polystyrene, plastic, Lego, pipe cleaners, etc.–was priceless. The creativity was so varied, and everybody clearly learned so much about brainstorming and developing ideas. Thank you to all the volunteers–architects, Thrive, everyone–for giving so much of their time and resources. I can’t wait to see the playgrounds posted on the website.