Project Lead: Prof. Sol Cátala-Valentín (Assistant Professor, Research and Instruction Resident Librarian)
Fellow (Spring 2026): Cadence Chen
This project creates a 3D-printable board game to support students navigating transdisciplinary research, grounded in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy and informed by digital critical pedagogy. The game guides players to evaluate sources beyond the academic-reliable vs. popular-unreliable binaries, recognizing valuable knowledge across scholarship, practitioner expertise, community wisdom, and lived experience.
The board is divided into four zones of the life cycle of knowledge production: Immediate (e.g., social media, live updates), Current (e.g., news articles, op-eds), Analysis (e.g., investigative journalism, trade journals), and Scholarly (e.g., peer-reviewed research, reference materials). Players move as squirrels across these zones, “foraging” for sources related to their own research topics using library and other publicly available resources. As they conduct real searches and identify resources, they bury brown acorns in zones where they find relevant sources and gray acorns where sources are absent or inaccessible. This creates a visual map showing where knowledge exists and where gaps appear across the information landscape. Players win when they bury acorns in zones that are relevant to their research, demonstrating they have searched across source types. The game culminates in a reflective activity where students translate their findings into a literature review strategy, identifying gaps that shape their research direction and potential contributions.
The Vivero Fellow would work collaboratively with the project lead to design and prototype all board game components.
Responsibilities may include:
- Explore the core principles of transdisciplinary research, game-based learning, and universal design for learning to guide design decisions
- Research 3D modeling software and best practices for design and fabrication
- Design the visual and tactile experience: color palette, typography, textures, and aesthetic style that support pedagogical goals
- Create 3D models with creative control over design, accessibility, functionality, and storage
- Solve technical challenges around printing constraints, modularity, and classroom usability through iterative prototyping
- Document the design process, including workflows, specifications, design rationale, and printing instructions
Through this project, the Fellow would gain hands-on experience in digital scholarship, developing skills in 3D modeling and fabrication while exploring how digital tools can help challenge dominant narratives in knowledge production and make visible structural inequities in the information landscape.
