Research team focusing on ‘play’ collaborates with Huntsville children’s museum

With the help of their students, three Auburn faculty members are putting their heads together to generate ideas for new exhibits at EarlyWorks Children’s Museum in Huntsville, Alabama. While the outcome of their collaboration is detailed and comprehensive, their focus is on a singular concept: children learn through play. 

“At a time when the world urgently needs critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers and innovative leaders, the answer may lie in play,” said Associate Professor Jennifer Pindyck, chair of the interior architecture program and associate chair of the architecture program in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC). 

Pindyck’s colleagues are Silvia Vilches, an associate professor in the College of Human Sciences who leads early childhood and parenting programs for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Amy Serafini, the Educational Leadership program coordinator and an associate professor in the College of Education.  

The three have been collaborating for years around the idea of play, so when Auburn alumna and EarlyWorks CEO Beth Goodwin reached out for ideas to help the museum with its full reconceptualization, the interdisciplinary trio was more than happy to help.    

“This opportunity with EarlyWorks felt like a natural extension of our work, and the museum has been incredibly enthusiastic and supportive,” Pindyck said. “We envision this as a multi-year collaboration with a range of studies, outcomes and community engagement.” 

This past semester, Pindyck, Vilches and Serafini led their students in studying the overlap of child development, the design of play spaces and the role of play in learning. They shared lessons on how physical environments influence child development and how school policies emphasizing academic goals often minimize the role of play.  

In her fourth-year interior architecture design studio, Pindyck asked teams of students to design two exhibits, utilizing storytelling and sensory elements while integrating child development research to create memorable and impactful educational experiences.  

Serafini’s graduate-level educational theory and leadership students offered feedback on whether those designs supported learning and family engagement, encouraging consideration of issues like age appropriateness, accessibility, safety and how to measure an exhibit’s educational effectiveness. 

In Vilches’ graduate-level qualitative research methods class, students practiced data collection and analysis by interviewing the interior architecture students on what they were learning about designing play-centered spaces. They considered what questions, data, design and analysis would be necessary for a joint project with EarlyWorks and created a proposal for a continuing outreach partnership.  

Pindyck said the collaboration with the museum is incredibly valuable since all the students could relate to the usefulness of play in their own lives as a foundation for lifelong learning, innovation and health. She also liked that it pushed her own interior architecture students to think less about the dimensions of the walls and doors and more about the learning that happens in play spaces.   

“While space can be measured and drawn, it also holds social, emotional, developmental and phenomenological dimensions that are less tangible but equally critical,” she said.  

One goal that Pindyck, Serafini and Vilches plan to pursue further is the development of criteria to assess the quality of spaces designed for play, especially given the nation’s current focus on increasing healthy movement.  

When it comes to implementing some of the students’ ideas, Goodwin is excited for the possibility of bringing their designs to life. During the last year, EarlyWorks has made changes to the museum’s exterior and is now embarking on a plan to redesign its exhibits one at a time, transforming the facility into what Goodwin calls “a play-inspired and play-driven immersive STEAM environment where children of all ages and abilities can envision an exciting future full of possibilities.”  

And after several months of working with the students and faculty, Goodwin, who graduated from Auburn in 1994 with a degree in communication, is enthusiastic that children and adults alike will love their ideas.  

“It truly makes my heart happy to watch the students create these amazing exhibits,” she said. “EarlyWorks will be better because of the work done by these students and their professors. Each child that experiences the reimagined museum will be better served through this partnership.”