Charles Davis (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology)
First-Year Seminar 51S | 4 Credits (Fall 2024) | CANVAS SITE
Wednesday, 12:00 PM–02:45 PM
Natural history museums have inspired us for centuries and represent our best resources for understanding nature. They have been central to the development of countless scientific principles, including the theory of evolution itself. Yet the more inward facing missions of a museum are unfamiliar and the collections that sustain these efforts are vast and remain largely invisible. These institutions, however, have assumed a renewed relevance in the modern era of global change, especially as millions of artifacts are being mobilized online and facilitating a revolution in museum-based science. Here, we take a behind-the-scenes look into natural history museums over the course of the semester, including their organization, care, public outreach, and centrality to science. We will then explore the variety of ways in which new life is being breathed into museums to understand the geological era of the Anthropocene. Central to our learning will be weekly exploration and engagement with the vast collections of Harvard’s Natural History Museums.
Note: Students will also engage directly with this subject through outdoor exploration of nature guided by cutting-edge resources and tools developed for this purpose. The capstone project will be a collaborative effort to devise a museum exhibit that unites major themes of the term.