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By Jon M. Wargo, Jasmine Alvarado
For a pre-kindergarten (preK) class, designing a 3-D map of a newly constructed playground offered authentic opportunities to participate, deliberate, and solve an authentic problem. Responding to the compelling question—“How do we build community spaces that are welcoming to, representative of, and sustaining for all community members?”—the class was able to reimagine the purpose of a neighborhood park with the help of scaffolded inquiry. Through active deliberation (e.g., voting what items to include in the park) and participation (e.g., surveying classmates and families about what they would like in the neighborhood park), the class took action to become responsible community members.
The article describes "the community park project", a 22-session inquiry, conducted over five weeks, that used a “project-based approach” to foster early civics learning.