Games and historic maps in Utrecht
In February the international Shape2gether team headed over to Utrecht for an interdisciplinary staff workshop. We welcomed our colleagues on Monday morning at the Media and Culture Studies department at the Kromme Nieuwe gracht, in the historic center of Utrecht. As always, the meeting started with cordial greetings and one could hear many “lovely to see you again” and “how have you been”…. Time did fly, and four months have passed after the wonderful summer school we had in Malta.
The Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project aims to implement innovative approaches in the education for sustainable development in the context of climate change and its impacts on Europe by bringing together three groups of partner specialisations, i.e. geosciences, new technologies, and serious game design. Researchers involved in the project are Bouke van Gorp (UU project lead, Faculty of Geosciences) and René Glas (Faculty of Humanities). For more info, see here.
Day one of the program focused on Games and Discursive Game Design with an informative lecture by René Glas and Stefan Werning on conceptual differences between game and play, gamification and discursive game design, and how they have used discursive game design to teach about sustainability within their own courses and projects. This lecture stimulated discussion about the focus of the third and last summerschool in Bochum, and in particular how to connect all components of the summerschool into the discursive game design assignments students would work on. The fieldtrips and therefore the contextualization would focus on sustainability related to the massive transformation and regeneration of the Ruhr area. The day ended with playing eco-themed board games such as Daybreak (see below). Two of the participating students from UU joined in as well.
The next day we met again, but this time in the VMA building at Utrecht Science Park, home to the Faculty of Geosciences. The focus of the day moved from the consecutive summerschools to the design of a coherent master program. In small groups we therefore worked on the discussions about the identity of such a master and important pedagogical guidelines. After this hard work in the morning, we did a short tour of the Utrecht University campus with its mixture of concrete modernist buildings from the 60’s and 70’s and landmark architecture of the 2000’s such as Rem Koolhaas’ Educatorium and the University Library. In the University Library we went to the 6th floor where we visited the map room with a remarkable collection of historic maps of the UU. Marco van Egmond, the collection specialist, prepared a tour for us. We looked at a number of fascinating historic maps on display and also talked about the digitalization of historic maps. With many map enthusiasts in the team we could have stayed much longer.
After more discussions and work on the various workpackages, we went for some drinks in a very special place: a former hidden church that has been converted into a bar – which fitted nicely with the theme of ‘herbestemming’ of heritage since part of the group stayed at another former church turned into a hostel and restaurant.
The final day of the workshop started with admiring the ceiling and decorations of the small conference room we had in one of the UU’s historic building at Janskerkhof. The remainder of the morning was spend on discussing the various workpackages and deliverables related to the relationship between education for sustainable development and innovative and playful methods such as employing gamification and game design. All in all, it had been three fruitful days, spend in good company. The international workshops really add value both in terms of forging the bond of the team, and discussing the tasks ahead. With such a large, international and interdisciplinary team face2face communication is very valuable. Next stop: the Bochum summer school.
UPDATE: Destination Turku
In September 2025 all Shape2gether staff members met for another workshop. Our colleagues from UTU hosted the workshop in Turku. They crafted a wonderful program that balanced the hard work of designing a interdisciplinary Master curriculum on sustainability with getting to know Turku and literally submerging in typical Finnish social activities. The first morning started with a welcome and short presentation about the UTU and its history, to provide some context. This was followed by a wrap up and progress report by the project leader Vit Pazto. After the first morning session we made a tour around UTU campus with its modernist but bright and airy buildings, the water tower and the 1980’s additions. The students that have participated in the summer schools joined us for this walk and lunch and it was great to see them again – as enthusiastic as ever. The walking tour continued after dinner through the architecturally interesting new building of Åbo university (the Swedish speaking university of Turku) and then even into the offices of Niina and Sanna at the Geography Department of UTU. Revived by lunch and the walking tour we continued the tough discussions about the prospective joined master program.
On Tuesday we picked up where we left: designing a master program. Plenary discussions with so many people are not easy and do tend to drift in different directions. Therefore we split the group in three small groups that each of them talked about the identity, mission, relevance and unique selling points of this new master. This allowed all participants to think along and led to three different but clearly related ideas. These were pitched to the whole team.
Tuesday’s meeting took place on the island of Ruissala, just west of Turku, where the university’s botanical gardens are located. The island was the focus of Niina’s phd project and so she told us more about this special island that once belonged to the Swedish crown. In the afternoon we went for a walk and admired both the views and the bourgeoise summerhouses erected in the late 19th century. We also learned about the rare oak forests on this island and how challenging it is to conserve oak forests. The day ended in typical Finnish style with a touch of Finnish diplomacy: sauna and swimming in the (rather cold) Baltic sea.
Wednesday’s meeting focused on the months ahead, the final conference and all the tasks that need to be finalized. After lunch we all said our goodbyes again. We will have monthly online meetings, but look forward to see each other again in Olomouc in May.
