Back in February, we teamed up with our colleagues in the Centre for Research Collections to take part in Innovative Learning Week, a University-wide
festival aimed at inspiring and celebrating creative learning. As this year’s
festival had the central theme of ‘Ideas in Play’, we thought it was
necessary to call in the experts: play specialists from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children!
Flora Masson's 'The Story of the Hospital' - LHB5/20/6/1 |
The session was called 'Fun on Prescription', and the aim to create entertaining, distracting and educational activities for children in hospital by using materials held at the Centre for Research Collections. Specialists
use play in hospitals for a whole range of reasons, such as helping a child become
familiar in their new surroundings or to aid them in making friends with other
children on the ward. Furthermore, games and activities also reinforce the
motto of the Sick Kids Friends Foundation –
that young people in hospital are children first and patients second.
Events Assistant Claire and Play Specialist Ishbel had some
great advice to guide the session, such as what age range we were aiming at (11-14 year olds) and what safety
issues were important to consider – for example, infection control is a very serious
business, and it is crucial that objects can be wiped
down, and any paper items could be laminated. (Fun fact – a piece of paper is only allowed to be on a ward for 3 weeks
before it must be removed and destroyed…)
Once the students had got to
grips with the requirement and had a good look at the collection items, it was
up to them to brainstorm ideas and split into teams to work out the finer
points of would take their activity from an idea to a reality. As they study subjects from a variety of different disciplines – such as education, electronics and graphic design – they had a lot of ideas to
choose from!
Discussing ideas and working out details |
Group One plumped for making ‘story
cubes’ - large die with images from the collections on each face to guide and
inspire story-telling, while Group Two developed a ‘choose your own adventure’ activity
based on the chilling tale of Lady Grange, the ‘prisoner of St Kilda’. Group Three
opted to compile a book of jokes based on humorous sixteenth-century tales, and
Group Four went for a more visual activity with a ‘build your own monster’ game.
Some monstrous inspiration.... |
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