Contact: Terry J. San Filippo
College of Liberal Arts
805-756-1211; tsanfili@calpoly.edu
Playground Donation Creates Teaching Tools at Cal Poly
Cal Poly’s Preschool Learning Lab dedicated a new play area, Miss Josy’s Playground, in a ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 1. The playground was designed to help children learn while they play.
A Cal Poly collaborative effort between Human Development alumna Fran Durekas, the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), and the Psychology and Child Development Departments, the playground was named in honor of Durekas’ mentor, Josephine “Josy” Stearns, who taught child development courses at Cal Poly from 1969 to 1992.
Durekas says Stearns, who passed away in 1992, had a major impact on her studies and her career choice. Durekas founded Children’s Creative Learning Centers (CCLC) with her husband, Ty. The company designs employee-sponsored childcare facilities and programs. Now a part of Knowledge Universe, a leading global education company, CCLC’s list of notable clients includes Google, Oracle Corporation, Pixar, Stanford University and Yahoo.
Durekas approached CLA in 2007 about renovating the lab playground. “Cal Poly has given so much to me,” she said. “It absolutely set the foundation for my success. This was a chance to give back.”
Restructuring the playground seemed like a natural place to start. “The playground was static,” said Durekas, “with too much concrete and too few ways to help preschoolers learn while they played.” In the end, she funded much of the $190,000 renovation costs herself. The project also inspired a generous gift from an anonymous donor and a donation from Knowledge Universe to support playground learning activities.
Psychology and Child Development faculty members Jasna Jovanovic, Denise Daniels and Jennifer Jipson worked alongside Durekas and Landscape Architecture faculty member David Watts to design the sustainable play area that featured natural components such as pea gravel and Fibar, an engineered wood surface.
The preschool is also a hands-on learning environment for current Cal Poly students. For her senior project, Child development major Hillary Sinnott is designing an organic garden project to introduce youngsters to the basics of biology by growing fruits and vegetables. Sinnott will also introduce physics by collecting and weighing what they’ve grown, and even engineering, with the help of Cal Poly students who are building netting and poles for the plants.
The organic garden complements other exciting new directions for the preschool lab. “The Child Development program is revamping its curriculum for the lab to focus more on supporting children’s natural curiosity about science and math by providing experiential opportunities for exploration and discovery,” said Jipson. “This move reflects the overall effort to focus on science, technology, engineering and math education, or STEM disciplines.”
A longtime donor and volunteer to the Psychology and Child Development (formerly Human Development) Departments, Durekas has close ties with the faculty and students. She is a member of the CLA advisory board, and in 2005 was honored for her involvement by being named the College of Liberal Arts’ Honored Alum at Homecoming.
###