The educators we met used, or were interested in using, natural history data for a number of different learning/curricular goals. In particular an emphasis on bringing the “history” into these natural history collections: what can we learn about how science is conducted and how it progresses by looking at these collections? What can be learned about the activity of collecting, and how it tied into historical events and society at large?
There was lively discussion about designing activities to engage non-science majors with natural history collections. Fundamentally, this means moving away from statistical analysis of bulk metadata (that is, working with spreadsheets) and to get students involved with the specimens themselves.
One participant had developed an assignment around a “specimen story” activity focusing on a deep dive into the history of a single specimen drawing in context by directing students to do research into a particular species, collector, or locality.
Other participants expressed preferences for activities where students would need to look at the specimen images themselves, for example to collect data on morphological features or phenological stage (i.e., does the plant have fruits or flowers).
Overall, the discussions emphasized the need for context (the “extended specimen,” which could be brought in by linked metadata) and visual engagement, which could involve looking at photos of the specimens themselves but also through data visualizations that help convey a story or pattern (e.g. plotting specimens from different time periods on a map).
The human angle and storytelling; the “extended specimen”
Meeting participants talked extensively about pulling in the human angle to provide wider context and to help students feel connected to the specimens. This could involve information about individual collectors (both anonymous and famous), collecting expeditions, and geographic locations that no longer exist but are often mentioned on specimen labels (e.g., the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
The number of natural history collections is enormous and overwhelming. Focusing on interesting stories would help students connect and understand the human endeavor (positive and negative) in compiling these natural history collections. The “extended specimen” could provide a catalyst to help students understand a broader story around collections.
For non-science majors, this could be a particularly engaging way to bring natural history collections into the classroom. It could also help students relate to collections and learn about the practice of science through history and connections to historical events. Linking historical data would be a useful way to contextualize specimens through external elements such as demographic information, historical maps, and pre-colonization indigenous territories.
The following quotes from meeting transcripts illustrate these points:
“…what people are missing is that each specimen has the history of the person and the place and the plant.”
“…what people are missing is that each specimen has the history of the person and the place and the plant.”
“…an interesting take on this could be looking at colonialism. And looking at when and who collected what and where. That would be a really interesting question because what you would see is the European influence on our understanding of biodiversity, and where the specimens live [i.e, what herbarium they are housed in] versus where they were collected.”
“…an interesting take on this could be looking at colonialism. And looking at when and who collected what and where. That would be a really interesting question because what you would see is the European influence on our understanding of biodiversity, and where the specimens live [i.e, what herbarium they are housed in] versus where they were collected”
“…I love the temporal, but what I think would be really cool is the humanities aspect of it”
“…oh, that would really hook! I’m thinking of the non majors. It’s a struggle to get them to care about anything that you put in front of them. And if you bring in the humanities piece of this and the history, and the biases that are in our scientific history, as well, I think, I think it would be great.”
“…and I think it really helps to show how relevant herbaria can be to society…as opposed to just counting species, or counting leaves”
Importance of students interacting with the specimens themselves
Another aspect of the discussion emphasized the importance of visuals for student engagement. In particular, the importance of students working with specimen images rather than just spreadsheets of metadata. As one participant put it, students “do not interface well with big databases” so having alternative presentations, e.g., maps, color coding, images of specimens, is a more effective way to incorporate specimens into biology curricula.
Separating the big data/data science aspect of natural history from the learning goals would allow students to focus on the organisms rather than getting bogged down in manipulating large datasets.
The use of specimens for teaching is different than the use of specimens for research. Researchers want data, students are more comfortable with images and visual representations. Educators often want students to look at additional features beyond label metadata, such as morphology and phenology so students can appreciate how much variation exists in nature. This also gives students experience in data collection.
The following quotes from meeting participants summarize these points:
“What I struggled with, with the tools that I had, and answering the questions that I wanted my students to answer, was helping them to visualize things over time and space. They’ve got these individual images of herbarium specimens showing species variation and I was trying to get them to lay them out on latitude, longitude grids. Having a digital tool that could help with placing these images relative to each other in both time and space, I think would be really awesome.”
“…being able to do things in a digital way that you would want to do in a physical way, like measure morphological features which are not described on the label.”
“…there’s a lot of good [for students] to be able to see at least some of the specimens or images of them because otherwise, it’s just a spreadsheet. And it’s hard for them to imagine beyond the numbers. And I like […] being able to see the morphology aspect to that”
“…getting visual interaction with the collections more than just data, I think is going to be important”
“Interacting with many specimens gives an important appreciation for variation in form”
“When you’re dealing with students who are too far away from a collection to visit the collection you lose the experience, in most cases of looking at a drawer and being able to see the amount of variation […what] we’re really good as humans is pattern recognition […] and if you are looking at one image at a time, on a computer screen, you lose the ability to appreciate the variation.”
Need for tools to help instructors use natural history collections
Tools for instructors to curate datasets for classroom activities would be an extremely helpful way for specimens to be incorporated into the curriculum.
Prefiltered datasets available for educational modules is one option since students easily get lost in a large database and instructors lose valuable teaching time demonstrating basic database use.
Customization, saving, and sharing of datasets, with the ability to subset by quality or completeness of metadata, would allow instructors to curate datasets suitable for use in the classroom.
The priority should be ease-of-use, equity of access, and engagement for students who are directed to use the database for a classroom activity. This could include elements such as map-based searches, with easy access to images from the map interface.
The presentation of individual specimen records should be engaging and provide historical, biological, and geographic context, or make it easy to access these elements by linking out to extended specimen data.
An important consideration is accessibility and equity for students with varying access to technology. Some students may only be able to access with phones and others may have slow internet connections. Being able to work on a web interface with auto-saving rather than downloading data and working offline would help address that.
Another aspect is to enable virtual handling of the specimens themselves, not just the metadata. These “digital light tables/workbenches would allow students to measure, view, and compare multiple specimens.
The following quotes from meeting participants illustrate these points:
“…if we can find a way to let the instructor bypass some of that [data manipulation], then […] we can create cool educational materials. […]. So we’re not expecting the educator to understand it [the structure of the database].”
“…here’s a pre-made module. The object is getting more people introduced to the datasets. You’ll have to give them the whole beginning, middle and end, with no ability to make a mistake, and a key that tells them exactly what the answer is going to be…”
“you have a lesson plan and a preset filter; click on this button that matches the title of this lesson plan. Boom. You have the data you need for this lesson now available to your students. That’d be pretty cool!”
