Devyani_park



Here's my park:



//This is my park designed especially for the Mathsland Community Planning Committee//.

//**Click on "directions" to go to URL**//


 * Scale:** 1 unit= 2 meters
 * =__**REPORT**__= ||
 * **symbol** || **representative** || **area and formula** ||
 * Park || Entire Park || 2520 sq. meters (length= 60 m. and width= 42 m.) ||
 * area within brown border || Playground area || 600 sq. meters (length= 30 m. and width= 20 m.) ||
 * are within black border || Picnic area || 660 sq. meters (length= 30 m. and width= 22 m.) ||
 * white square (blue star inside) || fountain || 16 sq. meters (length= 4 m. and width= 4 m.) ||
 * yellow rectangle w/ brown border || sand pit || 35 sq. meters (length= 7 m. and width= 5 m.) ||
 * yellow line with swings || bar of swings || 7 sq. meters (length= 7 m. and width= 1 m.) ||
 * green rectangle || soccer field || 128 sq. meters (length= 16 m. and width= 8 m.) ||
 * brown rectangle || base of slides || 24 sq. meters (length= 6 m. and width= 4 m.) ||
 * yellow circle w/ black lines || "spinning circle" || 50.24 sq. meters (radius= 4 m. area= 4x 4= 16x 3.14) ||
 * thin, long, maroon line || monkey bar || 8 sq. meters (length= 8 m. and width= 1 m.) ||
 * maroon square || bathroom || 16 sq. meters (length= 4 m. and width= 4 m.) ||
 * orange rectangle || The "Rolling Cafe" || 120 sq. meters (length= 12 m. and width= 10 m.) ||
 * brown circle || circular garden || 28.26 sq. meters (radius= 3 m. area= 3x 3= 9 x 3.14) ||
 * green circles || trees || 3.14 sq. meters (radius= 1 m. area= 1 x 1= 1 x 3.14) ||
 * small, brown rectangles || tables || 2 sq. meters (length= 2 m. and width= 1 m.) ||
 * tiny, brown, circles || bench || 1 sq. meter (length= 1 m. and width= 1 m.) ||
 * light green rectangle || popcorn stand || 24 sq. meters (length= 6 m. and width= 4 m.) ||
 * small, light blue rectangle || hot dog stand || 8 sq. meters (length= 4 m. and width= 2 m.) ||
 * light green triangle || triangular garden || 28 sq. meters (base= 8 m. and height= 7 m. area= 8 x 7= 56/2) ||
 * red rectangle || rectangular garden || 24 sq. meters (length= 6 m. and width= 4 m.) ||
 * orange rectangle || vegetable garden || 36 sq. meters (length= 6 m. and width= 6 m.) ||
 * blue wavy figure || pond || 48 sq. meters (area of top half=4x 4 bottom half= 8x 4) ||
 * white boxes || steps/ flat surface || 8 sq. meters (length= 4 m. width= 2 m.) ||


 * =__LEGEND__= ||


 * L || Length ||
 * W || Width ||
 * B || Base ||
 * H || Height ||
 * r || Radius ||
 * * || multiplied by ||
 * / || divided by ||
 * π = ||
 * pi =22 / 7= 3.14 ||


 * =__FORMULA__= ||


 * Rectangle/ Square || Area= L*W ||
 * Triangle || Area= B*H/2 ||
 * Circle || Area= πr2 ||

=__Persuasive Letter__=

3512 Mathsland Bubble Lane MK 398712 Planning Committee May 26, 2007

Dear sixth graders of the Mathsland Community Planning Committee (CPC),

__**Intro**__

What do people want when they go to a park? Well, they want fun, freedom, fun, food, fun, relaxation, and fun! That's the reason you have me around, to provide you with this criteria! If you take a look at my park design, you'll see that this park plan went above and beyond everyone's expectations and the criteria. Not only is there fun, freedom, food and relaxation, but there are also places where you can make your own food and places where you can sit peacefully to eat it. All of this will be explained in the following paragraphs as my park should be the chosen one! stars from: http://www.montville.net/valleyview/starbright.gif

__**Entering**__

When people are entering this park, there are two ways to enter. One is by the stairs while the other is a slope for people on wheel chairs or maybe even for children who just like to run down. This is very useful because some of the handicapped people can't use stairs and some children would have more fun to just quickly run down. Once someone has already entered, they would notice a lot of space in front of them and on the right of them. This space is mainly for people to walk their pet or to just jog around. It's also for people to just sit with each other since the trees give excellent shade.

__**Food**__

This park (if chosen) will have all of the necessities and more! For example, if you're very, very hungry, there're 4 different places that you can go! There's the Rolling Cafe which will have a menu so you could choose what you want from a list of choices. This is for people who want an air-conditioned place to relax in. In the Rolling Cafe, there will also be a smoking area and a non-smoking area. This is to separate the people who smoke and the people who don't smoke since it's anyway really unhealthy to smoke. For people who really need to "go," there will be a bathroom in there. Not only that, but there's a first aid kit so someone who's hurt can go and get a bandage or cream etc. There will also be a few recycling bins in the Rolling Cafe. It will be separated into, "plastic", "paper" and "others."

The second place is a hotdog stand. This is for people who know that they would like a hotdog. Also for people who want to just chill outside. There's going to be another stand which is the popcorn stand! There are different flavors of popcorn like sweet, salty, caramel, etc. This is similar to the hotdog stand because it's for people who know what they want and for people who want to chill outside.

The fourth and final place is the vegetable garden! People can grow their own food and then eat it! If someone doesn't want to let anyone else eat the vegetables that they grow, they can just put a little sign showing that the vegetable belongs to them. This may be for people who are vegetarian or feel that the other food is too unhealthy (since it is). Also for people who want fresh food since the vegetables would be newly plucked. The vegetable garden can also make people feel like they're at home and it can give them a very homely feeling.

__**Playground**__

The playground is effective, because there're many, many different types of things to play with. For example, there are slides, swings, monkey bars, a twirly ride, and a sand pit! The sand pit will have some toys to play with in the sand. There are going to be three swings which are plenty for people to take turns with. The monkey bars are going to be long and stretched out so that children who want to keep playing on the monkey bars don't have to stop and go back to the beginning. If a child wants to get off in the middle, she/he can just do so. Another advantage of the monkey bars being long is that the children get really strong. On the top of the slides is a little "house" for the kids to play in. The twirly ride is a ride for the kids to sit on and someone spins it. After the child spins it, they can even get off. If a child gets hurt, there's is a first aid kit located in the Rolling Cafe.

In the playground there's also a soccer field and a fountain. The soccer field is for people to play soccer. Actually, it's not only for soccer because it's mainly just a field. That's why the children can play baseball, American football, and even basketball there. Since parks usually have fields, this park would have to have one too. The fountain is for people to just play under the water. It's in a corner so that the people who don't want to get wet, won't. You don't even need a swimming pool since you have a fountain!


 * __Picnic Area__**

The picnic area is for people to get some fresh air and to eat at the same time. The picnic area is very convenient, because it has tables with benches on both sides. The benches (per table) can probably fit 8 average-sized people. This is a lot because even if there isn't enough space, you can push two tables together. Not only are there tables, but there're also areas for people who wish to put a mat and sit on the grass. Another reason why this picnic area is so convenient is because it's right next to the playground area so the parents can watch their child and take care of them instead of being next to them the whole time.

__**Gardens****/ Trees**__

This park plan also contains 3 gardens! Each garden is of a different shape and has different types of flowers. There's a circular garden east of the Rolling Cafe, a triangular garden south of the picnic area and a rectangular garden south of the playground area. There will be sunflowers, daffodils, violets, bluebells, roses and many other different types of flowers growing in these gardens. People can even grow their own flowers in these gardens. Not only does this park contain gardens, but it also contains many, many trees. These trees are growing everywhere around the park and are quite spaced out so they're able to grow. The trees and the gardens make this park very fresh and spaced out.

__**Pond**__

In this park, there is also an irregularly shaped pond which has lilies and lily pads floating on the water. This pond is great to sit around because it's very calm and relaxing. It's also a great place to do yoga! This pond is not only meant for the atmosphere, but if someone has a floating board or one of those inflatable chairs that floats on water, they could lie on that on the pond, because that would make it even **more** relaxing. On top of this peaceful pond, there's a bridge made out of brick stones. Since it's made out of bricks, there's no chance of it falling apart and breaking. This bridge is for people to cross over the pond without getting wet! It's much faster than going around the whole pond. Since this pond is so big, there's also going to be some space for children to swim. In that space, they can splash about. The other space will be for adults so that they don't get irritated or annoyed from the noise.

__**Bathrooms**__

From all the running around in the park, you would definitely need some water and some food to give you energy. If you drink a lot of water or eat a lot of food, you would need to go to the bathroom a lot. That's why there are 5 different bathrooms in this park. There's one in the Rolling Cafe, one next to the picnic area, one in the corner of the playground area, one on the right when you enter, and one in some open space. These 5 bathrooms are very spaced out so that you wouldn't have to walk a lot to get to them because on the way, you might have an "accident."

Sincerely from the council member of the Mathsland Community Planning Committee (CPC) and designer of future park,

Devyani Gupta

=__Reflection__=

1. **How has your understanding of access to public spaces been changed by your experience of trying to access the Upper Field by wheelchair?**

My understanding of access to public spaces has been changed because now I understand how important it is to have access for handicapped people as well. This is because if there's no access for them to go to public spaces, they won't even be able to go. It also affects the company/people who own this business/ land because they're making less money since there aren't as many people going. Since there won't be any lifts in the middle of the park, you'll need to have a plank so that handicapped people can enter. To make the park even more user-friendly, there should be buggies to take the handicapped people where they want. If other people want a ride too, the buggy should probably charge a bit of money depending on the distance.

2. **What have you learned about the process when designing the park? E.g. How did you manage to convert real dimensions to grid dimensions and vice versa?**

When designing the park, I learned about the software "Macromedia Freehand." It was a really useful software because there was originally grid "paper" and it was perfect for making this park plan. The only tough part was that before doing this project, I had no idea that Macromedia Freehand even existed so I had to learn all about it and do my park within about 2-3 lessons! After doing this, I was happy that I learned new things that I had never known and probably wouldn't have found out if I hadn't done this project. I found converting real dimensions to grid dimensions really, really difficult, because I found it hard to make every single thing on my park plan match the scale 1 unit= 2 meters. I think that my brain finds it hard to convert things because I'm so used to seeing 1 unit= 1 meter on different things.

3. **What suggestions can you make for improving the process for next year’s students?**

The suggestions I can make for next year's sixth-graders are to give part of the first lesson to mainly let them just try out the software and get a feel of what it's like instead of starting their park right away. This is because if they try it on their park straight away, they might make mistakes and they'll have to start all over again. If they make mistakes when they're just messing around with the software, they can learn from it and they won't get frustrated from starting all over again. Also, I don't think that half the park should be a playground area and a picnic area because that took up so much space of the rest of the park. I think that the rule should be AT LEAST one fourth of the park should be a playground area and a picnic area. Another suggestion is that we should get more time to work on this because since it's the end of the year, we have many, many, assignments and projects so the stress really builds up. But the biggest suggestion of all is to make the scale less confusing because I found it extremely confusing. It was actually not only me but a few other people too. Only in the second class were we told that we could make the scale 2 x 2 so we had to change everything that we had already done if we wanted to use that scale. I think that with these suggestions, the project will be much easier for the students but they will still have to work hard which is good.