Play time plans

UW-Stout students design playground for elementary school

Students in UW-Stout assistant professor Glendali Rodriguez’s architectural design class took on a service learning project by developing designs for the River Heights Elementary playground and an outdoor classroom.

The school is one of the district’s oldest elementary schools, and the condition of the equipment is showing its age. It also is not accessible to children with special needs, although the school supports the special education program for students with significant disabilities.

“At first I was really scared because I don’t know anything about playground equipment, their budget or what they can afford,” said UW-Stout junior Nicole Banaszewski.

The 21-year-old retail merchandising major worked with a team of other students designing a playground. “I love how it turned out,” she said. “I love that it is a safe place for children to go both with good lighting and fencing.”

The playground her team designed included a rubberized surface so students in wheelchairs could get to the two pieces of modular playground equipment.

One piece of equipment includes activity centers. A sand chair digger has been added, as well as more slides and climbing areas and a teeter totter.

Students estimate the cost at about $70,000.

Keith Kohrs, a 29-year-old sophomore majoring in interior design, also was part of a team that designed a playground area.

It includes an ice skating area and more playground equipment for students to climb on and interact with.

“We were out there when there were kids playing,” he said. “They love the wooden structures there now that need to be replaced. They also wanted more sandbox diggers.”

The cost for their design is estimated at about $200,000.

The school’s playground needs equipment replacement and an update to make it more accessible to those with disabilities. The popular wooden structures students play on are over 20 years old and are wearing down, said River Heights Principal Peggy Kolden.

“They are the most popular pieces on the playground,” Kolden said.

Kolden said she thinks the student designs are incredible.

“It brought a fresh perspective,” Kolden said. “We’re really trying to promote River Heights’ playground as a community playground.”

Amy Gietzel, 24, a junior interior design major, worked with a group designing an outdoor classroom including garden areas, a fish pond, boulders to sit on and trees.

The school does not have one now. It is estimated the 390-square-foot outdoor classroom would cost about $43,000.

“We tried to put in things we thought they would like and that would be cool for students to use like the garden plots,” she said.

Rodriguez said the students met with the parent-teacher organization at River Heights and researched what students would want.

It will be up to the PTO if they opt to use any of the designs or part of them. The group would also have to raise money and apply for grant money for the playground equipment and outdoor classroom.

“Service learning projects bring out the best in students’ efforts,” Rodriguez said.

“They feel they are working for a real need. They also have to present their findings to people other than just the instructor.”

Students learned how to work with clients, meet their needs and budgets as well as create a site that is disabled accessible and secure.

“They worked very hard,” she said.

For more information, please contact:
Glendali Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of Operations, Construction and Management
rodriguezg@uwstout.edu
(715) 232-1522.

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