Activity: Modeling & Simulation

This is an activity that has not been done at any of the YAN centers in the past. But facilitators are encouraged to implement it in their YAN projects' contexts and share the process and results with the network.

Objectives:

• Understanding their environment from a socio-spatial aspect
• To give young activists the opportunity to represent their perception of their neighborhood

Materials: The choice of materials is flexibe depending on the context. Clay, cardboard, plastic, sand, canvass etc. can be used for constucting models and landscapes. Oil paints, chalk, paper and pencils would also be required.

Duration: Not specific. Variable depending on the context of the model-making.

Procedure: Prior to the modeling, children should make a base map of their community. Ideally, it should large enough to let them identify their homes, schools and parks. To make the base map, the children should be engaged in an activity to enlarge the already existing community map into a bigger map only with personally meaningful places illustrated by them. The enlarged map can be made on a large canvas or if the need is short term, it can be made in sand.

For the purpose of the modeling, cardboard templates signifying benches, houses, trees, sports fields etc. should be made with the help of parents and facilitators. For simulation, dolls could be used, as children, their friends and parents while keeping the other elements in the model, like the streets and buildings fixed. Other materials that could be used to make the models are stones, vegetation and clay depending on the context. Different modeling techniques and materials can be used with different age groups of children. The scale of the model should be large enough for easy manipulation and understanding for the children.

Comments: Since toys are the tools of language in children's everyday play with each other, modeling and simulating their community can be a very effective tool for them to express their ideas about their environment.

Modeling and simulation of their community can bring up some of the social and spatial problems existing in the community like crowding, privacy, rights of way, shared spaces, lack of open spaces etc., for discussion amongst the children and the facilitators.

To Learn More: Refer to Children's Participation, The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care, by Roger A. Hart, Earthscan Publications Ltd., London, 1997