Lower School Experiential Programming: An Accessible School

D.I.G. (Design, Innovate, Grow) Deep, Roycemore’s Signature Experiential Program for Pre-Kindergarten through 4th grade, drew to a close this past week as students departed school for spring break. The program provides hands-on experiences in design thinking, giving students a chance to learn to tackle complex challenges using creativity, collaboration, and user-centered problem-solving. 

Spanning two weeks and focusing on a specific theme, D.I.G. Deep sees students brainstorm, prototype, bring ideas to life, and turn imagination into reality. This year’s theme of “An Accessible School” challenged lower schoolers to explore accessibility barriers and understand how people engage differently with the world around them.

Learning Week

The first of two weeks of D.I.G. Deep is known as Learning Week. This week allows students to have a foundation of knowledge of the theme before putting their design thinking to the test. 

This year’s learning week asked students to consider that we are all different and to answer the question, “What does that mean about how we experience our world?”

Lower School dedicated time each day during the week to ask students key questions (How might someone experience the world if they see differently from me?), teach vocabulary (braille, visual impairment, contrast), and participate in activities (guided navigation, blurred vision, drawing & interpretation). Students explored what it truly means for a school, and a community, to be accessible and inclusive for everyone. A central theme throughout the week was the idea that people have different perspectives and different ways of experiencing the world, and that understanding this makes us better learners, friends, and community members. Students took a deep dive into four key areas: communication differences, visual impairments, physical impairments, and neurodivergence. For many, these served as a starting point for further discovery.

Another focus of learning week was understanding barriers and strategies. Barriers are things that get in the way and make it hard to participate, while strategies are clever ideas and tools that help us to remove those barriers. With a proper understanding of these concepts, students could begin to think of potential barriers at Roycemore and brainstorm ways that they could create strategies to remove them. 

Building Week

The second week of D.I.G. Deep provided an avenue for students to take what they have learned during learning week and apply it to the real world. Students worked independently or in pairs to develop a project that would make part of the Roycemore experience more accessible. 

The students used the design thinking process to come up with a solution to a problem and create a model of the solution using recyclable materials.

The imagination and creativity of the students was on full display, as cardboard transformed into model playgrounds with accessible slides and pipe cleaner became the ears to a robot cat assisting with severe cerebral palsy. As they were creating their prototypes, students were to ask themselves:

-What is the problem or need?

-What knowledge do I have about the problem or need?

-What are some solutions for the problem or need?

-What solution have I chosen?

-What materials will I use to build my prototype?

-What are the steps I must take to build my prototype?

The week of design, innovation, and growth concluded with the D.I.G. Deep Expo, where students shared their projects with the community at large—faculty, family, and community members. Our students will continue to take what they have learned at D.I.G. Deep to lead with empathy and understanding. 

Read more about Signature Experiential Programming at Roycemore.