October 2009 | Back to News
JCC&A introduces Play Cards, a kid-friendly family guide to transforming playgrounds into laboratories for exploring the science to be found when we go outside to play. JCC&A collaborated with the design firm of Chermayeff & Geismar to create the Play Cards for No Time To Lose (NTTL). A companion booklet describes how scientists got their starts as kids, with contributions from Robert Krulwich, NPR’s science correspondent, and Adam Bly, editor of Seed magazine.
Play Cards expand on concepts JCC&A developed in conjunction with PlaNYC, New York City’s visionary initiative to create a greener, more livable city by 2030. As part of PlaNYC, Mayor Bloomberg has dedicated resources to reconstruct hundreds of City schoolyards into public play spaces. Many participating schools have the opportunity to include science-related play equipment from “SciencePlay,” a catalogue created by the PlayLab team for the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and based on the city’s new K-8 science curriculum. The flagship science playground opened September 16 at PS/MS 394 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where NTTL introduced the Play Cards.PlayLab Play Cards extend the science playground concept to any park or playground anywhere—no special equipment required. This project received an Ideas That Matter grant from the Sappi Fine Paper Company and additional support from the Arthur Dubow Foundation and the J.M. Kaplan Fund. NTTL is working with the Trust for Public Land and Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of the City Parks Foundation and NYC Parks & Recreation, to distribute the cards to families and community groups.
See more sample Play Cards here.
For more information about PlayLab please contact NTTL at notimetolose@jcca-nyc.com.