A mud kitchen is making for an unusual playground item for youngsters in Angus.
As part of their course a group of certificate in business students at Dundee and Angus College invited primary school pupils to take part in a competition to design a mud kitchen – a type of outdoor play equipment – for use in their school’s partner nursery.
Having offered help and advice to the P4 to7 pupils, the group liaised with their colleagues on the joinery programme to guarantee that the winning design would be constructed in the training workshops at the Arbroath Campus.
Entries were judged by the business students, based at Gardyne Campus, and those on the introduction to joinery programme.
In a bid to hammer home their success, both groups of students welcomed pupils from Auchterhouse Primary School – the winning design from Angus – and children from the adjoining nursery school, to help assemble the mud kitchen.
In a hands-on visit the children had a chance to get to grips with business enterprise and joinery skills during their visit.
With the mud kitchen complete, the joinery and the business students visited the school on Thursday to install the kitchen at the nursery.
“This has proved a challenging yet rewarding exercise for all the students involved,” said Ruth Samson, business lecturer.
“The business group had to co-ordinate all aspects of the competition, help and give advice and collate and judge the entries while the joinery students had to interpret and construct the winning design – overcoming any problems on the way.”
Bridge 2 Business, a programme that connects students to the world of enterprise and entrepreneurship, supported the students to develop the project and funded materials for the mud kitchens.
“Working with others on this project has helped enhance the introduction to joinery students’ problem solving and communication skills,” said Steve Rennie, lecturer.
“Working with young learners and business students are great life long skills for students to develop.”
