The GIANT Room partners with Joan Ganz Cooney Center and iCivics

Dates:

  • Monday April 20th, 2026

  • Tuesday April 21st, 2026

  • Wednesday April 22nd, 2026

Location:

  • New York Public School in Upper West Side

The GIANT Room has partnered with Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and iCivics to co-design their social studies learning experience.  

The GIANT Room, an innovation hub for children and their families, is honored to announce a partnership with iCivics, to co-design their social studies educational content! This project is in collaboration with Joan Ganz Cooney Center from Sesame Workshop, and funded by Walton Family Foundation. We are bringing together diverse groups of families with researchers and industry innovators to put reading and wellbeing at the center of product development for these products. Children that are in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade will be invited to join us for three FREE sessions of playtesting and co-designing. These free in-person two-hour workshops will take place at a school in the Upper West Side in New York City. 

During the sessions, participants will be co-designing new games, activities, and and tools to support them activate their background knowledge and build new knowledge in civics. Through this program, children will practice and gain new skills like design thinking, ideation, hands-on prototyping, sharing and receiving feedback. Participants will have the opportunity to meet the platform’s designers and collaborate on creating these new features and activities that will make civics learning more engaging and motivating. 

As a token of appreciation for your time, participants will receive a $75 gift card for joining all three of the sessions ($25/session). 

The GIANT Room believes the most engaging and effective learning experiences are the ones that are designed with children' s point of view in mind, and even better, those that are designed with children involved in the design process. These co-design partnerships not only provide opportunities for children to meet and build prototypes with real designers from publication companies, but also make it possible to create reading resources that millions of families around the world can engage and connect with.

iCivics was founded in 2009 by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning by providing educators and students with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to embrace and engage in civic life together. They empower educators and lead the movement to make civic education a nationwide priority so all young people have the confidence to shape the world around them and believe in our country’s future.

Named for the co-founder and visionary behind Sesame Street, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop that advances positive futures for kids in the digital world. They conduct research on emerging technologies and collaborate with technologists, digital media producers, and educators to put this research into action to support children’s learning and well-being. Joan Ganz Cooney Center also works directly with policy makers and investors to drive national conversations and decisions that help children thrive within the digital world.

This program is completely FREE for children to participate. We are accepting a limited number of families to participate. Families with children in grades 3rd, 4th, and 5th are invited to apply. Bilingual and/or multilingual language speakers are highly encouraged to apply. 

For more information about GIANT programs and a full list of their workshops and events, please visit The GIANT Room’s website.

CoDesign ProgramMaru Eugenia Segovia