Grafemos
Development & Research
Organization
Where Indigenous Wisdom Meets Learning Sciences
In our workshops, you won't just learn about complexity; you will roll, stamp, design, and collaborate to build powerful learning activities rooted in local culture. Step into an interactive environment, master new instructional design tools, and take home strategies that inspire critical thinking in every learner.
Inspired by Mayan Weaving
The modelling activity and the toolkit feature symbolic motifs and physical design elements co-developed with the Ixkoj Ajkem Council of Mayan women weavers.
Co-designed with the Ixkoj Ajkem Council of Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Guatemala, this workshop is rooted in Indigenous Kaqchikel weaving traditions, local knowledge, and learning sciences. It is especially designed to support teachers in rural Mayan communities who want to create powerful learning experiences without depending on digital technology or internet access.
Led by Local Voices, Driven by Community
Grafemos workshops are facilitated entirely by dedicated local Mayan women from Santo Domingo Xenacoj. Trained in advanced instructional design and learning engineering, these community leaders bridge local wisdom with modern complexity education — creating a safe, relatable, and deeply empowering space for every participant.
Experience the Grafemos Activity Toolkit®
Discover a unique, physical modelling system designed to make complex thinking visual, creative, and tangible. Built in partnership with Kaqchikel Mayan knowledge keepers, the Grafemos Toolkit® replaces screen reliance with tactile learning—featuring custom motif seals, interactive story cards, and the unique 12-sided Dode® printing device.
Discover a unique, physical modelling system designed to make complex thinking visual, creative, and tangible. Built in partnership with Kaqchikel Mayan knowledge keepers, the Grafemos Toolkit® replaces screen reliance with tactile learning—featuring custom motif seals, interactive story cards, and the unique 12-sided Dode® printing device.
Hi there! I'm Dodito, and if you're curious about the story behind the name Grafemos, I'd love to share it with you! Let’s dive in!
What Educators Will Learn
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
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Build non-computational system models using the Grafemos Activity Toolkit®, including the Dode printing device, motif seals, and interaction cards.
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Connect Indigenous, cultural, and community knowledge with classroom teaching practices.
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Design complexity education activities for K–12, informal, and intergenerational learning spaces.
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Improve their lesson designs through peer feedback, reflection, and authentic assessment.
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Lead learning experiences that help students analyze real-world challenges and imagine solutions grounded in their communities.
What Educators Will Learn
Teachers leave with practical tools, materials, and lesson designs they can use in their classrooms and share with their communities, including:
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Custom complexity learning activity plans
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Hands-on experience with the Grafemos Activity Toolkit®
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Personalized symbol and motif sets
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Peer-reviewed rubrics and instructional design materials
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A Grafemos© Certificate of Completion
Your classroom, community, and
cultural knowledge can inspire
creativity, innovation, and
meaningful learning.
Share your Grafemos experience with us!
Discover Interconnectedness Through Grafemos
Transform the words from your stories into meaningful symbols, colours, and patterns. Through creative, hands-on activities, you’ll explore how meanings and symbols interact, uncover unexpected connections, and watch new patterns emerge.
Create your own Grafemos and discover fresh ways to understand your stories, emotions, and our wonderfully complex world.
Join a workshop and experience the power of meaning, creativity, and connection!
How Grafemos Works: From Story to Systemic Simulation
To describe it in a simple way, the Grafemos activity unfolds in a few intuitive steps:
1. Crafting the Narrative & Agents
Working in intergenerational teams, participants explore a community theme or ecological challenge, breaking it down into six core "agents" and designing physical symbol-stamps inspired by Maya textile art.
2. Encoding States & Relational Rules
Drawing from Kaqchikel colour epistemology, colours express state and emotion. Teams establish relational "what-if" rules that dictate what happens when agents encounter one another across their community landscape.
3. Rolling the Tangible Simulation
Using The Dode®—a 12-sided physical rolling device—participants roll and stamp pathways across a large communal floor canvas, letting natural randomness spark encounters between agents.
4. Investigating Emergence & Rounds to Share
Learners step into the role of systems investigators, executing their behavioural rules where symbols overlap. The session culminates in an Indigenous Round to Share (Ronda para Compartir), reflecting on unexpected systemic patterns and real-world solutions.
