While many college students flocked to southern destinations on spring break in March, a class of 18 in OLPD 5080, Examining the Good Life in Denmark, took their search for the good life to Copenhagen.

Denmark is consistently ranked among the top countries for quality of life, well-being, and happiness, but the class also explored contentious current issues including immigration trends, taxation models, and media coverage of political tensions affecting the country. It built on eight weeks of reading and exploration prior to the journey using a multidisciplinary lens to ask questions, such as  What exactly is the good life? Who has access to it and who does not? How do Danish children perform in school compared to other children? What are the guiding philosophies of the education system?

With play and creativity as central components, the itinerary included a day trip from Copenhagen to the International School of Billund, referred to as LEGO School since its funding comes from the LEGO Foundation. Opened in 2013, the school enrolls approximately 400 students today, including kindergarten, primary, and middle schools. One of the school’s primary goals is to demonstrate the power of playful learning. It has managed to become extremely popular among children and their parents in the local Billund, Denmark, region and also among other teachers, policy-makers, educators, and scientists who are interested in exploring how play, learning, and education integrate in new creative strategies to improve children’s skills. The OLPD class had the opportunity to visit the Lego House, too, where they got to play and have fun themselves before coming home to finish their projects.

Using qualitative research strategies, students learned how to act as social scientists and completed projects on a range of topics such as urban design, transportation, and education.

The class is taught by Mike Stebleton, an associate professor of higher education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development.