Free Admission for Teachers and Educators at Children’s Museum in June

All teachers and educators - including pre-k and child care teachers - can partake in free admission to the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh this month.

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Teachers and educators can obtain one free adult or senior admission at the museum every weekday in June. A school or state ID must be shown at the time of purchase. 

The discount is available for in-person admission only and cannot be redeemed online. For more information on the Children’s Museum’s hours or exhibits, visit its website.

CitiParks to Open Pittsburgh’s Outdoor Swimming Pools for Summer

CitiParks is scheduled to open 15 of Pittsburgh’s outdoor swimming pools for the summer this coming weekend.

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The pools are scheduled to open on Saturday, June 15. The hours and days of operation are yet to be announced as staff works on lifeguard scheduling. 

CitiParks has recruited, certified, and onboarded 140 lifeguards for the 2024 pool season. The final training class for lifeguards was completed at the beginning of the month.

The 15 pools that will open this weekend include: 

• Ammon

• Banksville

• Bloomfield

• Highland Park

• Jack Stack

• Magee

• McBride

• Moore

• Ormsby

• Phillips

• Riverview

• Schenley

• Sue Murray

• West Penn 

• Westwood

Three pools are not opening for the season due to maintenance and staffing issues. Due to a major renovation in Homewood Park, the pool will remain closed. Ream will not open due to a cement and liner issue, while Sheraden is undergoing a number of renovations that are required for the pool and its building. 

Pool tags will be available on opening day at all open pool entry gates. Visitors can save time by completing their application before arriving at the pool.

For more information, visit the City of Pittsburgh’s website.

Pittsburgh’s Adaptive Bike Rental Program Creates Cycling Access

Pittsburgh’s Adaptive POGOH bike rental program - which provides cycling access for people of all abilities - is open for the summer two days per week.

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The program is open every Wednesday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Sept. 29. Rentals are for two hours and are offered at either 10 a.m. or noon.

Adaptive POGOH offers a fleet of seven different adaptive cycles that are available for rent at one location in the Eliza Furnace Trailhead Parking Lot on Swinburne Street.

The bike rentals are free during Adaptive POGOH’s 2024 pilot program.

Rules and regulations include:

• Cyclists must accept POGOH’s terms and conditions to rent cycles.

• Riders must be 18 years or older.

• Riders must leave a credit or debit card with the attendant while they are on their ride. The card will only be charged if equipment is not returned or damaged.

• Riders may not return any cycles to POGOH stations, but rather to the Adaptive POGOH rental site at the Eliza Furnace Trailhead parking lot.

• It is the rider’s responsibility to ensure the cycle is returned on time.

• Cyclists must bring their own helmet if they choose to wear one. Helmets are not required, but encouraged. 

• Cyclists should bring their own lock if they plan to leave the bike at any time.

POGOH representatives will be on hand to assist with adjusting seats and providing a safety overview of the cycle.

Those interested in using one of the cycles can make a reservation now. For more information, visit the Adaptive POGOH website.

Pittsburgh Spray Parks Open for Season

Pittsburgh’s spray parks and playgrounds with spray features are now open for the summer. 

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Attendees do not need to have swimming skills to enjoy the spray parks, which are accessible to smaller toddlers to pre-teens.

Weather permitting, the spray parks’ hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through mid-September.

The city’s spray parks include:

• Arlington - Arlington Playground, 1523 Fernleaf St. 

• Beechview - Vanucci Playground, 1295 Orangewood Ave.

• Burgwin - Burgwin Playground/Burgwin Field, 328 Mansion St.

• Chartiers - Chartiers Park, 3793 Chartiers Ave.

• East Hills - East Hills Park, 2300 Wilner Drive

• Paulson - Paulson Playground, 1300 Paulson Ave.

• Shadyside - Mellon Park, 6601 Fifth Ave.

• Troy Hill - Cowley Playground, 1200 Goettman St.

• Warrington - Beltzhoover, 329 Warrington Ave.

The city’s playgrounds with spray features include: Armstrong, Chadwick, Eileen McCoy, Frazier, Garland, Heth’s, Joe Natoli, Kennard, Larimer, Liberty Green Park, Leslie Park, Marmaduke, Moore Park, Nelson Mandela, Osceola, Springhill, Swisshelm Park, Wabash Park, and West Penn Park.

For more information, visit the city’s spray parks web page.

Playful Pittsburgh to Offer Games During Three Rivers Arts Festival

The Three Rivers Arts Festival will bring 10 days of free art and music to Pittsburgh’s cultural district from May 31 to June 9. This year, Playful Pittsburgh will offer games on three days during the festival.

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Playful Pittsburgh will offer games for all attendees at the Giant Eagle Foundation Backyard at 8th Street and Penn Street on the following days:

• Sunday, June 2 from noon to 6 p.m.

• Monday, June 3 from noon to 6 p.m.

• Tuesday, June 4, from noon to 6 p.m.

Playful Pittsburgh will bring oversized versions of popular games - including Connect 4, Cornhole, Jenga, and LEGO blocks. Attendees will be able to take part in an afternoon of laughter, joy, and playful competition.

Three Rivers Arts Festival

This year’s festival runs from May 31 to June 9. Hundreds of vendors selling everything from glass work and paintings to illustrations, jewelry, and pottery will be set up in Pittsburgh’s cultural district. 

A number of musical artists will perform at this year’s festival, including Los Lonely Boys, the Sugarhill Gang, Furious Five Say She She, Ben Folds, Pokey LeGarge, Martha Redbone, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Nicole Zuraitis, Ozomatli, and others.

The festival will also include a number of other events, including a display of photos from the 1984 Three Rivers Arts Festival, juried art exhibitions, a sculpture workshop, and games of chess.For more information, visit the Three Rivers Arts Festival’s website.

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.