Our Adventure

In today's society, many children going into adulthood do not have the necessary skills to be able to grow to their maximum potential. In the developmental stages of childhood, a great deal of children are not given opportunities for their curiosity to bloom and their critical learning and cognitive skills to thrive. Supplying children under 5 with creative building blocks and an environment that fosters critical thinking would help them build these opportunities for themselves. Physically, these would take the form of Legos, other free-form toys, and adventure playground. Children all over the world who are given the chance to independently create would start out with an elevated understanding of the world and how they can change it.

A massive problem in society is that people around the world either do not know how to raise their young child to maximize critical thinking and cognitive skills, or are unable to supply their children with the tools to allow creativity. Billions of people on the global scale suffer from either poverty, not allowing them to reach their creative ambitions, or are unaware how to train their critical thinking skills. 

There are also multiple factors that can interfere with creativity. These include: poverty, unstable parental relationships, violence, and not being free to express oneself. In my own high school in Cedar Grove, we did a random survey of high school students to prove that how people played with Legos was related to an elevated level of ingenuity. The students who played with Legos without instructions, or, as we called them, "Tinkers", tended to have elevated critical thinking and cognitive skills. This was supported by their teachers' opinions. The people who are lacking in those skills are the same ones who lack that creative freedom from a young age. This is the problem we wish to solve: the problem of getting all children that essential creative environment.

Children from a multitude of different backgrouds will be assisted through this solution. Rich or poor, suburban or city, all children have the same necessities from the day they are born. The solution we have come up with is meant to serve a child's mental capacities rather than their physical needs, so it will be applicable to young children all around the world.

Their needs will be met by providing an environment that will assist them developmentally. Every child has the basic need to explore their surroundings and experiment with them. This solution is meant to provide them with that, so that these children are able to succeed later in life. In short, this solution will provide them with something less physical than food or water, but something just as important to a growing child anywhere.

In order to stimulate critical thinking and cognitive skills, we have to change how people treat their children and give them supplies needed to spark their child's creativity. In order to do this, children need to be placed in a creative environment where they can build, design, create, and engineer things independently. 

Some countries are doing better at this than others. The United States, for example, lacks "adventure playgrounds", or playgrounds that use building supplies and tools rather than the conventional plastic slides and stylized roofs. Other countries, such as Britain, have these playgrounds in abundance. In allowing children to play in an adventure playgrounds, we can allow the children's imagination to take control, letting them play and create real structures. In addition, in trusting the children with more dangerous tools, they become more cautious without being told to do so. In allowing this type of play all over the world, children learn persistence, problem solving skills and enhanced creativity. These playgrounds should be implemented in both towns and cities, in locations that are easily accessible to parents and children. Ideally, they would be within walking distance, however this has different meanings in different places. The main point to consider is that all playgrounds should be accessible to many children, so that they are able to grow and learn together.

In addition to allowing childhood play time to be experienced in the outside world, children need to have a creative environment at home. Allowing children to play with a medium such as Legos at home with no instructions gives the children the chance create out of their own volition. Children would be able to create an entire world based off their imagination. This play is similar to the activities that takes place inside of an adventure playground in that it shows children how the world works. However, not all people can afford Legos, so we should ask those who can afford them to give them to children in need. People could send Legos and other building blocks to a distribution center, and that center can send the blocks out to families who need them. This would allow even impoverished children to gain the problem solving skills and boosted cognitive activity that is essential to all.

By allowing these children to grow and become curious about the world, we give them the tools to reach their full potential.

What makes this solution innovative is that it treats different areas of the world and different social structures as similar, but not the same. We do not want to apply a one-size-fits-all solution to everyone, but we recognize that all children, at their very core, have the same basic need of creative freedom. Applying adventure playgrounds to cities around the world would appeal to high-income and low-income neighborhoods alike. Additionally, allowing for different ways of getting to our solution would allow children across the world to develop into brighter adults. This would lead into a sort of "butterfly effect", as these creative adults could come up with their own innovative ideas. It is also innovative since it uses how the developing human brain works. A young child creates a huge amount of neurons every second, so every second spent learning is hard-coded into his or her brain. This is why fostering independent thinking and learning is so important at that age. Our solution would provide that to many children. The problem is that adults aren't able to reach their full creative and cognitive potential. Because it is started young, our solution solves the problem before it has a chance to begin. Our solution pulls from all aspects of human development: social, because it involves children working together, physical, because children tend to exert themselves more on a nontraditional play surface, and mental, because children will work out solutions they create to problems they find themselves.

The technology our Solve solution is using may not be complex, but its application could help children all across the globe. It is using two main components: one social element, the adventure playground, and one independent element, the building blocks. 

Adventure playgrounds are essentially the opposite of the typical playground, with its established features and infrastructure built with safety in mind. They are also, by nature, more engaging to a child's young mind: in a supervised, static environment, there is no freedom to change or create challenges to overcome. It's important to note that "risk" isn't synonymous with danger, it is simply used to describe any time when a child is faced with some challenge, and must make a decision to overcome it. Studies show that a healthy amount of risk is important for a child's mental and physical health, due to increased opportunities for problem-solving and physical exertion. Additionally, the technology used here is easy to implement, as adventure playgrounds, by definition, are made out of cheap and easy to maintain elements, which are easy to implement in low-income areas.

Building blocks are a simple toy that, like adventure playgrounds, are engaging and interesting to a young mind. They are an open-ended toy, which provides the child a chance to create and solve their own problems. This, in turn, develops the child's cognitive abilities and decision-making skills through play. 

Our solution will address the problem by reaching children through what they will respond to most: play. The young human brain is hardwired to explore, build, and create, but in modern society it is hard for a child to find those opportunities. Our solution provides them.

Through continued play on these "risky play" structures, children develop important logical reasoning skills that are used in adult life. Researchers have claimed that while these structures may cause more injuries, they provide more stimulation for their growing brains. Additionally, because these playgrounds are so economically viable (they are easily made with recycled materials and unwanted supplies), they are accessible to children in low-income areas. This means that any child can have access to the necessary social and physical stimulation that will allow them to succeed in adult life.

Additionally, providing building blocks like Legos to children provides an outlet for creativity. According to a survey we took, high school students who played with Legos while ignoring the instructions that come with each kit were more likely to be creative and had higher GPAs. These simple-looking toys provide a valuable tool to young children that is both safe and rewarding. 

In short, the problem is that children who are not given the resources to grow into their full potential are not able to achieve the same goals as their peers. Providing a low-cost solution like adventure playgrounds and building blocks will ensure that every child can develop the necessary physical and mental capacities to succeed.

We aren't currently serving anyone, but that is only because we do not have the resources to create our ideas as well as we would want to.

In one year, with your help, we would like to create a prototype playground near where we live, serving the people who live in a ten mile radius.

In five years, we would like to expand this idea across our part of the country, by selling our idea to towns and people who would like to give their children the opportunity to grow.

Or goals within the next year is to build at least 10 parks in the state of New Jersey and the surrounding area. 

In addition we would like to spread the word that our adventure playgrounds are not the only way for your kids to express creativity. We could share that letting them figure out how the world works through their own experimentation, whether it be building with Legos or playing in the grass, is the true benefit. We plan to start an advertisement campaign for these playgrounds so that we can share this information. 

Within the next five years, this advertisement campaign could blossom. If our message is accurately represented, we could get more people to want adventure parks in their towns. We could easily build them where there is space, as they are by nature made of anything that is available.

Currently, the biggest barrier is that we are simply teenagers living in a suburban area. We do not have the money to buy a lot to house our park or to buy toys for children. 

There aren't any suitable lots nearby: they have either become houses or parking lots. Another factor is that we have no publicity and thus, no backing from any corporation or even our town. 

Even if we had some backing, some parents might not want to send their kid to an adventure playground. In accomplishing our goal we need to change a major concept around the world: that safe play is good play. Many people believe that treating children with safe protection 24/7 is the best thing for them. It is, in fact, quite the opposite: allowing children to be challenged gives them the chance to learn for themselves. They are completely capable of analyzing risks, but if they are coddled they will not learn how to deal with them. Asking parents to accept this would require changing their ideas about play.

To accomplish our goals we need to change the view of how people see us. Instead of starry-eyed children, we need to be seen as adults with a plan.

To overcome these barriers, we need to spread information. We need to dispel the myth that completely safe and static play is the best for our children. We need to share the truth: that introducing challenges into play, children will naturally grow and mature into smarter and happier adults. "Risk" carries with it a connotation of danger and injury, but here it means a problem that needs to be solved. Really, we can overcome this barrier by changing the culturally applied definition of "risk" when it is used for "risky play".

Other than changing what society thinks of risk, we would also need to change the worlds perception of teenagers wanting to change the world. We need credibility, which would be earned through the success of these parks.

In total, three individuals are taking up the project. Sebastian Seun, Jill Muszynski, and Sean Bonus have worked on the project conception, research, and presentation together.

Each individual on our team exudes creativity. We walk through life excited by the world around us, and are willing to learn from any person we meet.

Sebastian Seun spends most of his time theorizing, designing, and creating, from building his own mini fridge to learning about the brain. His knowledge of how the brain develops helps him provide insight on how giving children a creative environment such as adventure playgrounds and or a room of Legos.

Jillian Muszynski is a creator and an artist. She can take existing technologies and research and apply them to modern problems. Her free time is spent designing projects and creating. As an avid science and engineering student, she is quick to decide what will work and what will not.

Sean Bonus’s use of technology is fairly rare, he prefers to spend his time with his imagination. His childhood was spent reading, drawing, and creating. Sean utilizes a good old fashioned paper and pencil to create. He worries about the youth of today only being provided a single path to go down, so hopefully our adventure playgrounds can broaden their view. To him, technology is a great path into the future: you just have to pick the right tools.

The group is currently not partnered with any other company, but wishes to join with creative form manufacturers such as Lego. 

We would also like to partner with a nonprofit organization with volunteers to assist with the constructions of these adventure playgrounds. Other organizations such as Toys for Tots could give us different types of building block toys to distribute.

In our business model, parents are the main target. We need to convince them that our adventure parks are not only fun, but also beneficial to their children. The beneficiary would be the children, as our system furthers their future potential.

The service that we provide is our adventure parks. We would build them and manage them, along with possibly running cafes and other services for the parents to use while their children play. This, of course, has the added bonus of profit. This would go back into maintenance of the playground and other facilities. In addition we would provide donations of free-form toys, such as Legos, and would give them to underprivileged homes and daycares. 

The organization is non-profit and would be backed through donations and volunteers. Much of the building materials and land for these adventure playgrounds would be unneeded or recycled.

To make our company more stable, we would host events for the children that cost money to participate in. These could be simple challenges, such as building the best play castle or other fun objective that many children across parks could have fun with. These would not only promote problem-solving skills, but also build creativity as kids compete to be the best!

Other ways to make money once more adventure parks open is to create cafes and other shops for adults while they stay in the area. Studies have shown that decreased (but non-zero) adult supervision boosts risk evaluation skills and independence. Creating areas for both adults and children not only help them both, but also allow us to turn a profit, further boosting our company.

Applying to Solve gives us a platform to spread our ideas. It gives us a chance to be recognized by our town, so that they can let us start an adventure park. Without it, we just look like a few teens with a crazy idea. Since we are so young, trying to get outside help or even partnerships is a great challenge, as no one believes that we are capable of making a change.

We would like to partner with Lego, Toys for Tots, and Play:GroundNYC.

To partner with Lego would be a great feat and would boost the rate at which we can spread the idea that children need creative play and not just fun play. And with Lego we can further the donation pool for it and get the Legos where they need to go weather it is at home or to a daycare.