The UGP Co-Design Clinics are interactive sessions where we collaboratively shape and refine various components of the Urban Griots Playground music-based design intervention for early childhood.

Sessions vary widely, each focused on a different facet of the project. They are a great place to experiment with creating curricula and pedagogical strategies that are more culturally-grounded, effective, and satisfying to the children, families and practitioners who will adopt them.



Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is a process that involves five phases:


In the current playtesting phase, we are evaluating the Urban Griot Playground ecosystem as an embodied learning context
for investigating the affordances of rhythm in the design of ecologies and pedagogies for early literacy/STEAM learning.


Session Format

Clinics are 45- minute to one hour long playtesting and ideation co-design sessions intended to foster collaboration, experiential learning and provide opportunities for design thinking and creativity. A typical clinic format includes:

  • Introductions (10-15mins)
  • Playtesting (10-15mins)
  • Ideation (10-15mins)
  • Focus Group (10-15mins)


There are 8 sessions in total. You may attend as few or many as you wish. Depending on when you visit, you might help redesign our stakeholder engagement strategy, playtest our multimodal learning kit, or create your own activity quest card for one of our Circle, Digital or Construction workshop stations.


Upcoming Sessions

Wednesday October 30th - 9:30am
(Center for Design, Ryder 180)

Quest Cards - How to model, support and mobilize learning through information systems design?

Wednesday November 13th - 1:30pm
(Sacred Space, 200 Ell Hall)

Workshop Experience I: Circle Activities - What is the value of culturally-grounded embodied circle practices?

Monday November 18th - 11:00am
(Center for Design, Ryder 180)

Workshop Experience II: Digital Activities - How to effectively gamify and assess learning in digital/virtual learning environments?

Thursday December 5th - 2:30pm
(Center for Design, Ryder 180)

Workshop Experience III: Construction Activities - How do construction/tinkering design activities contribute to STEAM learning and identity development?

RSVP