April 3, 2018

The 2018 winter ScholarSnack event gathered students, faculty and staff from several different colleges and departments in the Dragons’ Learning Den to answer the question, “What inspires your quest for life-long learning?”

This year, the Libraries is exploring different ways of gathering student feedback about how the Libraries can make its spaces more effective environments for self-directed learning. The quarterly ScholarSnack event series is one of the ways the Libraries is reaching out to Drexel students. Each session is designed to give students an opportunity to discuss their experiences with the Libraries and to provide feedback on the tools and programs they need to become more powerful learners.

During the winter term event, held on March 6, 2018, Dean of Libraries, Danuta A. Nitecki, floated an idea for a student competition that combined elements of the Awesome Foundation Grants with the mechanics of the popular ABC television show, Shark Tank. Simply put, students would pitch their ideas for library events or programs to a panel of judges. The winners would then receive micro-grants and library support to implement their ideas.

Students were thoughtful in their responses to this idea, acknowledging the excitement of hosting a Shark Tank-like competition on campus. But they also expressed their concerns.

“I think this would need to be a long-term project of maybe six months or more, where teams pitch their ideas in the fall quarter and then they have the winter quarter to actually implement the idea,” said Christine Nieman, an undergraduate student enrolled in the College of Arts & Sciences. “The terms are already so fast and so busy. I’m not sure I would be able to commit to that on top of my other work, and I don’t think I’m alone there.”

Other students in attendance agreed that the scale of such a competition might be too much for students who already take on demanding course loads.

They did, however, come up with other exciting concepts for academic competitions and programs that would require less time commitment, like scavenger hunts, organized class study sessions or trivia competitions.

Inspired by these ideas, the Libraries will host "Two Truths & a Lie: A Libraries Competition to Decipher Authoritative Information," a take on the well-known icebreaker activity "Two Truths and a Lie." The event will help students practice and challenge their life-long learning habits. Teams of one to four students will compete by using the Libraries’ resources to solve interdisciplinary information challenges about everything from local politics to literature. Teams will be required to provide authoritative sources of their answers and will compete for gift certificates to the book store and coffee shops.

The Libraries' "Two Truths & a Lie" event will be held on Wednesday, May 2 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in the Dragons’ Learning Den. More details will be announced over the coming weeks. Contact library@drexel.edu for more information or to register to participate.