Glasgow Science Festival, a city-wide festival of science-fuelled fun for adults and children alike, returned for its 18th year, celebrating how research transforms our lives, cities, and futures! This year, Health CASCADE researchers based at Glasgow Caledonian University hosted a session in the beautiful Botanic Gardens on June 13, 2024.
Our Harry Potter-themed co-creation activity was based on the storyboard method, a visual planning technique used to organise and present a sequence of events, ideas, or processes. We tailored this method for children by making it more interactive and using child-friendly tools like markers, magazines to cut from, and glue. We also provided an example of a completed tile to help them understand the concept.
Each team was challenged to reimagine and create a new vision for Glasgow. The activity began with a giant storyboard featuring a starter tile depicting Lord Voldemort’s dramatic destruction of Glasgow. We encouraged everyone to think about their favourite places, such as schools, parks, and neighbourhoods, and consider how they could transform them into magical and inviting spaces.
Each house team was tasked with creating a tile—a masterpiece on A4 paper—that showcased their vision for a rebuilt part of Glasgow. Every group had a ‘Head of House’, Danielle, Lauren, Mira, Quentin and Seb, who helped them bring their ideas to life. Once their magical tile was completed, they gave it a title, and one brave volunteer presented their creation to everyone, explaining their vision. Finally, they placed their tile on the storyboard wall, contributing to the collective rebuilding of Glasgow, piece by piece.
During this activity, children shared how they would transform Glasgow using their creativity and artistic talents. We encouraged their creativity and collaboration by tailoring the storyboard method to become accessible to children, resulting in rich, creative outputs that showcased their ideas and storytelling skills.
Themes:
Below are the title and brief description of the different collages that each team of children created following the prompt: “If you were in charge, what would your Glasgow look like?”
Green Spaces
These creative ideas for green spaces are all about connecting with nature and the community. “Raven’s Green City” is packed with bikes, trees, and picnic spots, while “The Magical Garden” is about fruits, veggies, and ponds. “The Nature-based Park” focuses on farming, recycling, and animals, and “Love for the Earth” imagines a happy planet with clean water, recycling, and lots of wildlife. “The Better Glasgow” dreams of green grass, clean swimming water, and animals, and “The Magical Flower Park” adds a playful touch with fruit stands, flowers, birds, and even a helicopter. “www.Green Power of Greenness.com” envisions a city with clean air, abundant green spaces, beautiful clean water, and a strong focus on recycling and cycling. Each idea brings its unique vibe, blending nature with a fun, sustainable lifestyle.
Food
These ideas add a sweet and sunny twist to transforming Glasgow. “The Glasgow of Dreams” imagines a place with free ice cream, beaches, blue skies, green mountains, and plenty of dogs. “The Yummy Bakery” envisions a beautifully designed spot in the park, serving up healthy and tasty treats, fruits, and juices, blending deliciousness with a perfect park setting.
Animals
One team created “The WillTill Army,” a magical force of protectors ready to defend Glasgow from Lord Voldemort. Another group dreamed up “No Pests, Only Cows,” envisioning a city full of green, clean spaces where all kinds of animals, from monkeys to turtles—and plenty of cows—could live freely. The “New Future of Glasgow” brings butterflies, berries, trees, animals, recycling, and beautiful houses to the forefront. And then there’s “The Perfect Nature Glasgow,” filled with diverse animals like elephants, puffins, dogs, seals, birds, and cats, all under the warmth of endless sunshine with birds soaring through the skies.
Sports and Activities
Each collage is a playful glimpse into how these kids would shape a more fun, active, and artistic Glasgow! “Glasgow is Sport” envisions a super active city full of sports facilities, with plenty of fruits and veggies to energise everyone. “KPL Theme Park” is all about fun, featuring waterslides, swimming areas, and many animals, with recycling bins to keep everything tidy. Another group came up with “The Perfect City,” where sports rivalries are a thing of the past, basketball reigns supreme, and there are always places to grab some chips (French fries). “Glasgow FC” transforms the entire city into a giant football field with free ice cream and sunny skies. Finally, “Arts Land” is about boosting the arts scene with more creative activities throughout the city, including cycling and lots of green spaces.
Harmonious Glasgow
Many created a holistic vision of a harmonious Glasgow that touched on more than one of the themes, painting a picture of a dreamlike Glasgow where positivity and nature take centre stage. The “Perfect, Wonderful, Super Glasgow” is a place where good ideas are always welcomed, and you can enjoy excellent restaurants, fruits, petting zoos, flowers, green grass, and birds. In “Everything Anytime,” it’s a city where palm trees sway, and you can get whatever you want whenever you want, with excellent food and stylish clothes. “The Witcher Glasgow” envisions a magical world with plants, clean water for swimming, penguins, and berries. “Celtic City – Best City in Scotland” is full of smiling people, dogs, seals, puffins, birds, elephants, flowers, and endless sunshine. “The City that Says Only ‘Yes'” is a place of infinite friendship, beautiful grassy fields, towering skyscrapers with trees, and politicians who are always on board. Finally, “The Ideal House” is a serene, light-filled home made of wood and glass, with cream and natural colours indoors and a deer to complete the tranquil setting.
Engage children!
This experience showed us that we must engage children and give them a voice in meaningful discussions. Giving children a platform to envision what they want their future to look like can boost their confidence in their ability to contribute. Encouraging them to be curious and explore different options allows for creativity and ensures their perspectives and ideas are considered, making solutions relevant to them.
Storyboarding can be a powerful medium for improving communication skills among children. It allows them to express their ideas visually, making varied concepts tangible and easier to discuss. It also allows children to practice working together and forming a collaborative vision with other children they do not know.
Good facilitation is crucial, as children have varied interests, an abundance of ideas, and different attention spans. Facilitation should promote group cohesion without forcing involvement, creating a support environment where children can choose to engage when they feel ready.
