Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Evolution of Play student work

Final Project
My short one-credit The Evolution of Play course challenges students to consider how play behaviors can increase the survival and/or reproduction of animals. Although we consider the play behavior of a variety of species, we spend most of our time looking at human play. For the Final Project in the the class, student are asked to either INVENT or ANALYZE a form of human play using evolution as their primary reference point. The guidelines for this assignment can be found here. Below are some of the best Final Projects I have received, downloadable as PDF’s:

“Playing House” © Kayla Zegar (Spring 2013)
“Hide and Seek” © Laura Thompson (Spring 2013)
“Popcorn Pickup” © Quinn Sherman (Fall 2012)
“The Stacking of the Paper Pieces” © Anthony Wylen (Fall 2012)
“Playing with Fire” © Kristin Culmo (Fall 2012)
“Noncompetitive Dance” © Maggie Garcia (Spring 2011)
“Skydiving” © Michelle DiNardo (Spring 2011)
“Juggling” © Melissa Uhl (Spring 2011)
“Tickling” © Haleigh Rucinski (Spring 2011)

All of this work is used with permission of the students who produced it. Please respect the intellectual property rights of these students by not using their work without their permission. If you would like to contact any of the students who produced this work, contact me.