51茶馆

Carolina Al铆, M.A. 鈥�22, an alumna of the Learning Engineering program, has won the Gold Award at the for her project, an app mockup and guide for caregivers and families seeking to create learning experiences in nature for young children. The annual Design Challenge recognizes digital projects showcasing excellent user-focused research, design decisions, and user-experience outcomes.

Al铆 was inspired to create this project because of her conviction that 鈥渂uilding strong emotional bonds with nature鈥� is central not only to a child鈥檚 formative development, but the stewardship of the planet. She cites the environmental educator David Sobel as a major influence on her thinking. He wrote, famously, 鈥渋f we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it.鈥�

The Lynch School鈥檚 Master of Arts in Learning Engineering program helped prepare her to succeed in the Design Challenge, says Al铆. 鈥淚 learned to inform my design decisions on theories from the learning sciences, but more importantly to test those ideas with real learners and users. We also engaged in constant rounds of feedback and critique from my peers and professors and helped each other to grow ideas and grow as learning engineers.鈥�

Al铆 is a project coordinator at the Early Childhood Department of . She works in partnership with the (CAL) initiative developed by the at 51茶馆, led by Augustus Long Professor of Education Marina Bers.