Illawarra scientist's unstructured play pop-ups inspire kids to explore and create

An Illawarra scientist has transformed junkyard scraps into a play space for children of all ages, with the structureless experience helping kids expand their creativity and knowledge.

Growing up, Dr Quill Darby was given plenty of opportunities to play and explore, which helped spark lifelong interests in exploration and curiosity.

“I had a lot of freedom and beautiful play memories as a child,” she said. “And I was always fascinated with nature and outdoors, learning and discovery.”

Straight after school she earned a degree in biotechnology and then a PhD in molecular biophysics, but during the next year working as a research scientist she realised that her love was in figuring out how something worked and moving on to the next challenge or discovery.

“But that’s not how real science works,” Quill said. “Real science is then repeating it over and over and analysing it and I just found myself in a lab all day and it just wasn’t for me.”

She went on to work in science communication and educating others about the excitement and joy that could be had in the field.

“I spent six or seven years for a science outreach company doing hands-on workshops, festivals, stage shows, blowing things up with liquid nitrogen and I loved that, it was great and it introduced me to so much more.”

But Quill found that even education programs designed to be fun had their limits as organisations and parents sought to follow strict curriculums or prove certain outcomes during sessions.

So she started Junkyard Rascals to let the little ones lead the way and choose how they play.

“We’re squashing their curiosity, we’re squashing their love of learning by telling them how to do it,” she said.

“People say to me a lot, ‘What are the defined activities?’ and there is none; you literally just watch kids explore.”

Junkyard Rascals runs loose parts play pop-ups all over the region, where children have the opportunity to engage in supervised play where they are in control.

“The main thing is creating that unstructured play space for kids, creating that ownership and they can mess it up and we just let them go at it as much as they want to,” Quill said.

And while junkyard is in the name, the items Quill provides actually aren’t trash, but rather carefully selected objects to facilitate engagement with all kinds of children.

“I’ve got blue blocks, I’ve got milk crates, I’ve got pipes, I’ve got spin wheels, those sorts of things; I start with big things that can always be built with – they can create shelters if they want to, and then I think what else?

“You want to have big things, you want to have little things, you want to have things that address all the different kinds of play types.

“What I try to do is make sure what I’m bringing is providing for as many different types of play as possible.”

Although Quill’s main focus is just letting the children play, she said as a scientist she sees so many educational connections.

“They don’t need to be told that they’re learning about, say, gravity, but they are. They are watching a ball go down a track and say it’s not going fast enough and change the angle so it goes faster.

“They will learn that eventually and they will link that to the memory that they’ve created.”

Enjoying education is not only important for helping children stay interested for longer, Quill said it also impacts how they absorb and retain the information.

“What people don’t realise is if you actually learn something through play it sticks with you so much faster,” she said.

“Learning through play just gets your brain fired up; there’s different neurochemicals when you’re playing that means that your brain is actually growing as you play, you just don’t realise how important that is.”

Junkyard Rascals partners with groups such Healthy Cities Illawarra, Pope’s Kitchen and Bush Kindy to ensure that as many members of the community can access the experience.

“One day – 10-year plan – I’d love to have an adventure playground – a set space that is just always like this and it’s absolute chaos all the time,” Quill said.

“But for now I think bringing this to as many different places as possible exposes as many parents, educators, schools as possible.”

To find out where the next pop-up is, visit the Junkyard Rascals website.