Date/Time: November 5, 2026 | 2:30 – 3:30 pm

Room: TAHOMA 3

Abstract: Our culture is very good at designing playgrounds for young children. But somewhere around middle school, those spaces quietly disappear. The playground goes away, but the need for play does not.

Tweens and teens are still developing socially, emotionally, and neurologically. They benefit from spaces that allow them to test themselves, build confidence, form social bonds, and regulate stress. Yet middle and high school campuses often lack outdoor settings that support these developmental needs.

Adolescents don’t stop needing play—we simply stop designing spaces that support it.

What if we stopped thinking of play as something kids outgrow and started thinking of it as a powerful learning environment for tweens and teens?

This interactive session explores how educators, designers, and school leaders can bring play back to middle and high school campuses. Drawing on inspiring precedents from parks and public spaces around the world, the presentation highlights a range of outdoor areas that successfully invite age-appropriate playful behavior in older children and teens.

The session will also feature a case study of the outdoor spaces at Aki Kurose Middle School in Seattle, illustrating how these ideas can be integrated into school environments.

Participants will leave with practical strategies for designing schoolyards that support adolescent development, social connection, and playful learning, along with new ways of thinking about play as a powerful alternative learning environment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the developmental needs of tweens and teens and how those needs influence the design of outdoor environments that support learning and well-being.
2. Identify how play changes during adolescence and the types of outdoor experiences—movement, challenge, and social gathering—that support it.
3. Explore design precedents from parks and public spaces that successfully invite older children and teens to play.
4. Apply design strategies for middle and high school campuses that reintroduce play in outdoor environments that support learning, exploration, and social connection.