Day Two at the OGEM Summer School: Rhythm, Production, and Learning through Nature

The second day of the summer school, held as part of the “Rhythm of Nature and Sensory Exploration Project,” continued with activities that combined movement, rhythm, creativity, and interaction with nature.

In the first part of the day, the students participated in sports activities led by Asst. Prof. Dr. Canan Ceylan and Res. Asst. Mustafa Burak Uyar from the Faculty of Sports Sciences. These activities focused on gross motor skills, postural control, balance, bilateral coordination, and body awareness. Following the sports activities, the students designed their own maracas. Through grasping, holding, assembling, and shaping different materials during the maraca-making process, they worked on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, bilateral hand use, and praxis skills. After completing the design process, a rhythm activity was conducted with a university student studying in the music department. Using the maracas they had made, the children practiced producing rhythms in time with the music and generating motor responses in accordance with given rhythmic patterns. The activity addressed skills such as auditory discrimination, perception of rhythmic patterns, auditory-motor coordination, motor planning, and the temporal organization of movement.

In the afternoon recycling activity, the children with special needs repurposed waste and recyclable materials to create a variety of objects, including guitars, phone holders, and desk objects. The process of using materials beyond their original functions and transforming mentally envisioned ideas into tangible products provided a meaningful context for ideation, translating abstract ideas into concrete products, problem-solving, planning, visual-spatial perception, and motor planning. Cutting, assembling, and shaping the materials also required fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, and object manipulation. At the end of the day, during a nature walk and photo session, the children observed the natural environment of the campus while using their visual attention, environmental awareness, and spatial orientation skills.

While the children with special needs continued their activities with the guidance of volunteer undergraduate students, educational and experience-sharing sessions for families also continued throughout the day. The second day thus completed with activities integrating motor performance, auditory-motor coordination, praxis, problem-solving, creative production, and environmental participation.