Two Trying Together initiatives made Remake Learning’s new report, The 57, which includes a collection of projects that have shaped Pittsburgh’s learning landscape.
Remake Learning Report
The report was part of Remake Learning’s 20th anniversary. Some of the projects on the list were one-time events, while others are permanent fixtures. They were created in classrooms, libraries, museums, maker spaces, parks, community centers, and other locations. Projects include everything from TV shows and toys to weather balloons and video games.
Remake Learning highlighted the following Trying Together initiatives:
- Message from Me: A child-led digital tool created with Carnegie Mellon University that lets young children share their daily school activities with families using photos and recorded audio
- Ultimate Play Day: An event that transforms parks and public spaces into giant intergenerational playgrounds for all ages
Message From Me
Message from Me is a digital tool that helps children to communicate with their families about their daily activities and learning experiences by recording and sending photo and audio messages throughout the day.
Trying Together partnered with Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab to solve two challenges: children struggling to articulate their learning and families feeling disconnected. Early childhood advisory groups played a key role in shaping and strengthening the model over time.
The team developed and tested a prototype housed in a fiberglass kiosk equipped with a microphone and camera that children could use to photograph their work and record messages to family members. When iPads emerged, the program evolved into an app and improved accessibility.
“When children were picked up from school, a parent would say, ‘I got your photo today! I saw you built a magnet-tile tower and counted 20 blocks,’” said Sue Polojac, the project’s co-lead. “Moments like these sparked conversations between children and their grown-ups about what the child had done at school that day.”
Ultimate Play Day
Ultimate Play Day is a celebration hosted by Trying Together’s Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative. The event brought families, educators, and community groups together for free play activities across Pittsburgh’s parks and public spaces, raising awareness of play as essential for learning, health, and human connection.
The collaborative worked with leaders from museums, parks, community groups, and early childhood organizations to plan the event.
Ultimate Play Day helped communities to experience the benefits of play directly, rather than discussing them abstractly, Remake Learning explained in the report. It also reinforced that play supports learning, health, and connection throughout life, not just in early childhood.
To learn more about the two Trying Together projects and read more about the 55 others included in the report, check out Remake Learning’s The 57.
