DESIGNlife News

January 6 - February 5, 2011 - Assistant Professor of Art + Design Jan-Ru Wan has a solo exhibition at UNC-Wilmington’s Boseman gallery. Re Materialization will run till February 5. http://appserv02.uncw.edu/news/atuncw/annview.aspx?id=6330 The Boseman gallery is located on the second floor of the Fisher University Union on the UNC Wilmington campus.
January 31, 2011 - Landscape Architecture lecture [...]

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Last week, Blue Cross / Blue Shield of North Carolina announced a major initiative to attack the obesity problem in the state - and the NC State University College of Design is a part of the fight.
Shape NC brings together the College’s Natural Learning Initiative (NLI) with two other high profile health promotion partners - [...]

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The Natural Learning Initiative will soon be helping to design a training program and early childhood nature play curriculum for use by education professionals at museums, zoos, aquariums, and nature centers, thanks to a grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Leading the grant is the Chicago Zoological Society, which will work in [...]

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SAVE THE DATES!
Friday, February 11, 2011
4th Annual Growing in Place Symposium
Marbles Kids Museum
Saturday, February 12, 2011
8th Annual Urban Design Conference
Raleigh Marriott City Center
Stay tuned for details!
Register for Natural Learning Initiative Workshops at www.naturalearning.org
Research to Practice: Maximizing Child Outcomes in the Outdoors Symposium for Early HS and HS Programs.
Sept. 28-29, 2010
College of Design, NC State [...]

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Nilda Cosco and Robin Moore of the Natural Learning Initiative and M.Z. Islam were recently published in the “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Journal” with an article entitled, “Behavior Mapping: A Method for Linking Preschool Physical Activity and Outdoor Design.”
ABSTRACT
COSCO, N. G., R. C. MOORE, and M. Z. ISLAM. Behavior Mapping: A Method [...]

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The restricted life of children is having an increasingly negative impact on their healthy development. Many children are not allowed to venture out alone or even with their friends as previous generations did. How can we plan and design a public realm where children find the physical and social stimulation necessary for healthy human development [...]

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POD (Preventing Obesity by Design II) is a partnership between the Natural Learning Initiative at NC State and the N.C. Partnership for Children Inc.
Smart Start of Brunswick County was one of the recipient’s of the 2009-2011 POD Grant Award funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. POD brings the classroom outdoors through [...]

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“Kids need room to grow” is the title of a recently published article on KansasCity.com by Marty Ross.
Excerpt here features Natural Learning Initiative Director Robin Moore:
“There is a growing amount of good scientific research that demonstrates the positive effects of nature on people in general and children in particular,” says Robin Moore, a landscape architecture [...]

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The Natural Learning Initiative’s Playwork IN Nature Training Program trained individuals in basic playwork approaches for working with children in institutional and public settings where engagement with nature is the primary vehicle for creative enjoyment and healthy child development.
Visit NLI’s Web site to view new publications.

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In countries such as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, playwork is well established as a profession… working directly with children in an open-ended, creative way in community settings such as parks, schools, museums, urban farms, etc. Playwork is not established in the United States as a profession. The Natural Learning Initiative is working towards [...]

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In countries such as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, playwork is well established as a profession… working directly with children in an open-ended, creative way in community settings such as parks, schools, museums, urban farms, etc. Playwork is not established in the United States as a profession. The Natural Learning Initiative is working towards [...]

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The Natural Learning Initiative was featured in NC State University’s Research and Graduate Studies magazine Results. To read “Putting Active Designs into Play” download the article here.

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David Hunt from NC State News Services wrote an article for the Bulletin titled Do Children Need Risk? featuring the Growing in Place symposium being held today (2/20/09) by the college’s Natural Learning Initiative in Raleigh.
Also highlighted were the The Value in Affordable Housing workshop and the Healthy City > Healthy People: Design Solutions. There [...]

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Natural Learning Initiative (NLI): National Forum on Children & Nature endorses NLI Kids in Nature (KIN) project submitted by NLI in partnership with NC Partnership for Children (Smart Start) and NC Cooperative Extension.
The mission of Kids in Nature (KIN): A North Carolina, Statewide Early Childhood Strategy, is to bring nature to places where the majority [...]

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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation has approved the NLI grant for Preventing Obesity by Design Phase II (POD II): Training, Design Assistance, and Dissemination for Increasing Physical Activity and Nutrition Awareness in Childcare submitted in partnership with NC Partnership for Children (Smart Start).
Building upon the success of POD I, the aim [...]

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