In this guest blog, Ryan McKay from the Citadel Youth Centre in Leith tells us all about their Old’s Cool Intergenerational Project and how Dynamic Earth provided an ideal location for exploring & learning about Deep Sea Oceans with local young and older people.
Citadel Youth Centre’s award-winning Old’s Cool Intergenerational Project was originally set up in 2015, with the aim of supporting young people at risk of disengaging from school, to facilitate intergenerational activities to older people and present a record of their work to the wider community.
"For the last 3 years, thanks to funding by the National Lottery Community Fund, we have been running our award-winning Old’s Cool Intergenerational Project. Our penultimate group with S1 pupils from Trinity Academy was delivered in part at Dynamic Earth between January and March 2022. As part of the sessions, our young and older participants took part in fun and engaging sessions."
Ryan adds "From arts and play based deep-sea tasks, to more active team-based activities, both generations had a positive intergenerational experience. Learning from these sessions was also captured in the Generations Working Together and Play Scotland - Play and Storytelling Toolkit. Many of our participants found learning about science in school a demanding experience. Following attending Dynamic Earth, we can safely say both generations had a fantastic time!"
“In my school days you didn’t get science like this. I thought it was very educational and even at my age I learned something.”
(Older Person)
“Dynamic Earth was so much fun, it’s not like science at school.”
(Young Person)
"Delivering Old’s Cool during the pandemic brought many challenges in bringing young and older people together. Thanks to the large educational space at Dynamic Earth fun activities could be delivered safely. Experienced and adaptable Dynamic Earth staff also met the needs of our neurodiverse group.
To mark the end of 3 fantastic years delivering the project we recently launched our Digital Intergenerational Practice Toolkit which shares our learning of delivering Old’s Cool throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with Dynamic Earth and delivering more intergenerational experiences."
(Ryan McKay – Citadel Youth Centre)
We have had an amazing time working with Ryan and the rest of the group on this project, and we look forward to exciting new collaborations in the future. You can find out more about the Community Learning projects and opportunities at Dynamic Earth on our website!