System for Observing Outdoor Play (SOOP)
The System for Observing Outdoor Play (SOOP) was developed by the Sydney Playground Project team to examine activities that occur in different areas of the playground. We used the SOOP to quantify different types of play and physical activity levels that occurred during our intervention. Researchers can modify the activities to suit their own purposes. It is best used to record play occurring in different areas of a playground. It hasn't been designed for collection of data related to individual children.
Our procedures manual is available from:
Please also refer to our article:
Engelen, L., Wyver, S., Perry, G., Bundy, A., Chan, T. K. Y., Ragen, J., Bauman, A., & Naughton, G. (published online 2017). Spying on children during a school playground intervention using a novel method for direct observation of activities during outdoor play. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.
If you would like to cite the manual, we recommend using Sydney Playground Project as the author, System for Observing Outdoor Play (SOOP) Procedures Manual as the title, 2017 as the year and (Iliana can you insert the weblink where this will be found here) for the URL.
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHERS