Call for Participation Open for Meaningful Play 2024

The Center for Transformational Play is now accepting applications for volunteers to help with the Meaningful Play 2024 conference.

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Meaningful Play 2024 is a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles, and practices. It brings scholars, industry professionals and games practitioners together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade.

The conference is looking for volunteers to help run the Full Papers track. It welcomes contributions from researchers and practitioners in industry and academia who advance the understanding of meaningful play.

The purpose of the track is to present the community’s understanding of the current state of the art, practice, science, and/or discipline of meaningful play. Submissions should present original, unpublished research or design work that is not currently under review by any other venue.

Game exhibition and competition

The Meaningful Play Game Exhibition and Competition invites academic, independent, experimental, serious, transformational, and/or student game developers to showcase and gain recognition for their innovative work in game design and development. Analog and digital games are welcome.

The purpose of the games and prototypes track is to highlight the things that the community has built and allow attendees to play with each other’s work. Games and prototypes at Meaningful Play will be showcased in an exhibition during the conference. Attendees will have opportunities to play them.

Microtalks

The microtalks track encourages individuals to submit proposals to discuss any of the subtopics related to the conference. Its aim is to present perspective or pose challenges to the community toward energizing new or ongoing work. Content that is insightful, speculative, or creative is encouraged.

Hosted sessions

The hosted sessions track invites submissions of engaging interactive sessions to be organized by members of the community. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for community building and community engagement around topics of interest to the broader community.

These sessions could take the form of a panel or roundtable discussion among community members, a game play session, or an interactive workshop to get people working together.

More Details

Those interested in participating should fill out a volunteer form. For more information, visit Meaningful Play’s website or email meaningfulplay@andrew.cmu.edu. 

The submission deadline is June 5. The conference will take place from Oct. 16 to 18 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Seeking Input on Recess and Play for Advocacy Toolkit

Trying Together and Playful Pittsburgh are seeking input on recess and play for the creation of an advocacy toolkit on the topics.

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As part of their play advocacy research, Trying Together and Playful Pittsburgh are asking parents and caregivers of children, teachers, school administrators, and community members for input.

In the survey, participants will discuss how their child’s school perceives and implements recess. Collected input will go toward devising a comprehensive, community-based Play Advocacy Toolkit that will be widely shared and easily accessible.

The deadline to complete the survey is June 21. The survey is now available to complete.

Community Conversations on Play

Parents and caregivers of children, teachers, school leaders, and community members are also invited to join Trying Together and Playful Pittsburgh for upcoming community conversations on play.

Physical movement, the freedom to play, and playful learning during the school day improves a child's social, emotional, physical, and cognitive skills. However, many American children engage in less than one hour of unstructured play per day.

The conversations will focus on how play is an important part of a child's school life. The events will help attendees learn how to advocate for play and developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood.

In person event
Thursday, May 30, 2024 | 5 - 7 p.m.
Spartan Community Center of Hazelwood, 134 East Elizabeth Street
Registration is now open

Dinner and child care will be provided.

Virtual event
Monday, June 10, 2024 | 7-8 p.m.
Zoom
Registration is now open.

RAD Pass’ Summer Staycation to Offer Free Admissions to Area Attractions

The RAD Pass’ Summer Staycation will offer free admission opportunities to numerous area attractions this summer.

Free Admissions

Ticket offers from a number of Pittsburgh museums, cultural institutions, and other attractions will begin to appear May 1 on the RAD Pass’ website. Free admission days will begin on May 15.

During the course of RAD Summer Staycation, more than 100,000 free tickets will be available. Allegheny County residents would need to sign up for a library card and make reservations for specific events for free admission. The free admissions will continue to be announced until the end of August.

Participating attractions include the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, The Frick Pittsburgh, Heinz History Center, Mattress Factory, National Aviary, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, and Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum.

More Details

Free family-four-packs of tickets will be replenished with new dates for admission throughout the summer. They can be booked and redeemed through a four-step process on the RAD Pass’ website:

• Log in with your Allegheny County library card number and PIN

• Browse for passes by date or venue

• Reserve your pass

• Print your RAD Pass or download it to your mobile device

RAD Pass users are asked to only book a reservation that they plan to use on a selected date. If they are unable to attend, they should cancel the reservation to open up spots for others.

The RAD Summer Staycation will also serve as a one-stop-shop for people to explore free events at regional attractions throughout the summer. Its RAD Works Here site will feature a calendar of events, including everything from free concerts and movies at local parks to summer festivals.

Attractions participating in RAD Summer Staycation will not host a traditional “RAD Day'' this year. They will instead shift free admissions from the fall to the summer. However, RAD Days will remain focused on fan-favorite free events and experiences, including music and theater performances as well as stadium tours, arts classes, and family open houses.

For more information, visit the RAD Summer Staycation website.

Study with Questionnaire Explores Field of Play

A new study is exploring the current state of the field of play, specifically in games and related areas. Areas covered by the exploratory, qualitative study include mixed reality, themed entertainment, and tech. The study, led by Carnegie Mellon University’s Drew Davidson, also includes a questionnaire in which anyone can participate. 

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The study's aim is to define and reflect on the field of play. ETC Press will publish the results. 

The concept of play is broad and diverse, so the study is less a focus on a specific discipline and more an exploration of the extensive ideas around play.

The questionnaire asks participants where they are located, what type of work they do, and what they believe is going on in the field of play. All responses are anonymous, and only a few of the questionnaire’s 16 questions are required. It should take between 20 to 25 minutes.

More Details

The study incorporates assistance from such groups as the Pittsburgh Remake Learning Initiative, Pittsburgh Technology Council, and the Connected Learning Alliance. Participating organizations will form a committee to provide local focus on regions to help ensure an inclusive process that offers perspectives from the diverse groups engaged in the field. 

The study includes questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and community participation. It aims to find patterns, commonalities, and differences across various regions amongst the education, industry, professional, foundation, and government groups involved in the field of play.

The goal will be to collaboratively produce a white paper with the help of the committee. The final report's aim is to document the global state of play. It will also serve as a reference for current practices and problems.

Those who are interested in participating can take the questionnaire or contact the study team for more information. 

Remake Learning Days to Offer Hundreds of Events in May

The Remake Learning Days Festival will offer more than 350 events - including Playful Pittsburgh’s Ultimate Play Day - in May. The three-week festival offers activities for children ages two to 17 as well as adults.

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From May 2 to 22, families can take part in a variety of events and celebrate learning. Activities include building a robot, coding an art spinner, directing a film, doing scientific work, exploring the outdoors, making music, printing inventions with a 3-D printer, and more.

The festival will include in-person and virtual events hosted by schools, museums, libraries, after-school organizations, child care centers, and tech companies.

There are a number of free activities as well as others that range from $1 to $50. Most of the events take place in Southwestern Pennsylvania, while a few others will be held in West Virginia. 

Ultimate Play Day - which is co-hosted by Playful Pittsburgh, Trying Together, and CitiParks - will take place during Remake Learning Days. The event emphasizes the importance and power of play for people of all ages. The free event will be hosted at the Activities Shelter at Riverview Park from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.

The festival will also include a performance of “Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster.” Color puppets and props will bring characters from Mo Willems’ book to life on stage.

For more information on the Remake Learning Days Festival, visit the festival’s website.

Buzzword Day at the Theater

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Education department invites families to request complimentary tickets for a May performance of “Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster.” The production is based on Mo Williems’ books about the character.

How to Sign Up

Families can request up to four complimentary tickets for the Friday, May 18 performance at 10 a.m. 

The production will occur during the Children’s Theater Festival. The last day to register is Friday, May 10 by 5 p.m.

About the Show

The show tells the story of Leonardo, a terrible monster who tries to be scary - but isn’t. When Leonardo finds Sam, a scaredy-cat kid, it’s his chance to finally scare someone. Or, it could be the start of an unlikely friendship. The plot thickens when the pair meets Kerry and Frankenthaler, an even scaredier-cat and her monster friend.

“Leonardo!” uses hundreds of illustrated paper puppets, book pages, two-dimensional props, furry monster puppets, and songs to bring Willems’ books to life. Manual Cinema wanted to recreate the experience of holding one of the books, which are big, bold, colorful, and full of visual rhythm. Similar to all Manual Cinema productions, attendees are invited to watch the big screen like a traditional movie or watch the artists below as they create the story in real time.