Picture Perfect?: How We Make Sense of the Vastness of Life on Earth

by Katie Carter

This module borrows from the experience of Prince Frederico Cesi in the 16th century and his efforts to form one of the first scientific societies (the Accademia Lincei) and to document the whole of nature. He failed in some respects, but by modifying his aims, succeeded in others. Here, students form mini-scientific societies and work on documenting the vast diversity of living things. The task introduces central problems about how to document and how to organize -- leading to student discussion and discovery about the role (and limits) of visualization, the significance of a classification system, and the problematic status of anomalous (versus "normal") samples.

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