Halve It Component:
My project has a main focus on Wellness.

Wellness is one of, if not the most, important part of yourself. Usually, the majority of people think that to be healthy, you need to have a good physical body. However, this is wrong, you don't actually need that to be healthy and happy. Your wellness is your emotional being, your mental self, and if that's not being cared for, leads to stress and low energy levels. If you have good wellness you can be calm, stable, and able to take care of the day ahead.

Sustainable Development Goal:
SDG 3: Good Health and WellBeing

Natural Movement program meets SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) because it focuses on your actual health, not just staying fit, but staying happy, calmer and healthier. Calisthenics can help Middle School students grow better and naturally, doing this early will help with energy and wellness, decreasing the risk of stress.

School Context:

Our new school campus is great! However, there isn’t a single play space. We can do better than such a blank playground, most students during lunch or recess will go out to play around there. If students don't have anything like that, they can become mentally fatigued, stressed or just bored. Lunch and recess are basically brain breaks for you to then go back to learning. However, there is no stimulation to the brain, the whole point of having these breaks from class is to make sure that you're mentally energised again to go back to learning. Our current school doesn’t have anything to support wellness and health. The Australian institute of Health and Welfare says that 83% of teenagers don't reach the daily one hour of physical activity recommended. We need to support our bodies during this time of extreme growth spurts and puberty. To grow properly, we need to be physically healthy.

Ancient China

Gym or natural movement is deeply rooted with ancient china. Natural movement for the body wasn’t focused on building muscle it was used to train Qi and internal organs, for example, Wu Qin Xi or the five animals play that was created by ancient china physician Hua Tuo was one of the first “movement programs” which focused on as the name calls it, the movement of 5 different animals including the tiger,deer,monkey,bear and crane to focus on building up core strength or their internal Qi.

Another root to gym or movement was called Daoyin, which focused on calisthenic-like stretches that in their belief, prevented disease and sickness. There was also deep slow rhythmic breathing that increased blood circulation and flow, it also allowed people to function with a clear mind.

Ancient China relied on calisthenic-like movements to  build up the body and Qi for martial arts and better health and longevity. Qihong is also one of the techniques used for calming the mind and relaxation using slow movements and deep rhythmic breathing.

Liveability

Movement of students is usually done through sport, however that is mostly encouraged if their friends are playing those sports, students that don’t have friends doing sports or them not wanting to do movement in general is a worry for their movement and wellbeing. With our movement designs and programs we can shift those students into happy, healthy and ready to learn students. The best part about these movements is that you can do it by yourself with nothing but your body.We also include deep rhythmic breathing exercises to calm the mind and  increase blood flow and slow heart rate decreasing stress levels and ultimately leading to a healthy environment for students.

Adding on, the physical changes of a young teen are on a large scale and are unpredictable. By doing our exercises it will allow young adolescents to grow naturally and healthily, not having tense and stressed muscles when you're in huge growth spurts. Middle school students are having a hard time at school trying to fit in or find out where they want to be with their friends. With a clearer mind and healthier body they can talk to their friends with confidence.

How might we design a physical playground to help students with their wellness and focus, stimulate their brain and their physical body?

The design solution of Natural movement is that a little area contains a stretch station, a sticker that shows what formations you can do with it to stretch out and work out some muscles. There are a plethora of formations you can do to stretch each muscle and we are going to use a little space, perhaps a 10x5 meter area with two stretching stations and two pull up bars.

These stations have a focus on efficiency and quality with no moving components where you can stretch yourself, removing sore muscle pains and increasing blood circulation. Students that are interested can use this area to not only help with their adolescent growing bodies to grow naturally but to help their growing minds, not only helping middle school students in the long run but helping them in the present.