Cultivating Curiousity: What Does an Idea Need to Grow?

Lead Author: Simon Grey

Additional authors: Claire Timmins, Suzanne Faulkner

Timetable: ,

Description:

At the playful learning conference we celebrate the amazing playful practice presented to us. We leave full of enthusiasm and inspiration – however we talk less about how fragile ideas are at the start—and what they need to survive, grow, and eventually flourish.
In this session, delegates will be invited to choose one small seed of an idea related to their own playful learning practice. This might be a new teaching approach, a community-building experiment, a research question, or a playful intervention they have been hesitating to try. Each participant will be provided with a plant pot and a real sunflower seed to represent their idea.
They will plant their seed and be encouraged to decorate their plant pot with the things their idea needs to grow—such as time, courage, collaboration, institutional support, playfulness, or failure-friendly spaces. Participants will create a label for their sunflower, naming the idea and articulating their hopes for what it might become, and share their ideas in small groups.

The session uses physical making, metaphor, and collaborative discussion to encourage participants to:
– Reflect on the conditions that help playful ideas take root
– Recognise barriers that stunt growth (and how to work around them)
– Commit to nurturing one idea beyond the conference setting
– Build accountability and connection with others through shared growth

Rather than ending at the conference door, this session extends playfully into the future. Delegates will be invited to take their sunflowers away with them and (but not required) report back on the progress of both their sunflower and their idea—through photos, short reflections, or community updates—creating an ongoing, low-pressure network of playful accountability.

References, web links and other resources: