Introduction
“Veo una lluvia de mujeres, colombiana dominicana y boricua” - Cheap Thrills by Sia (feat. Nicky Jam) “I see a rain of women, Colombian, Dominican and Puerto Rican”
In May 2025, my students took a walking tour of their neighborhood via a recently established public access nature trail called The 6061. When asked by the adults what they knew about the trail, the destination, and surrounding architecture and creatures within it, students could give little to no answers. This led me to believe that by exploring the inter-relationship between art, design, and biology students can and will improve understanding of biological concepts utilizing both visual and kinesthetic activities, specific exploring their neighborhood for which they have so much orgullo boricua (Puerto Rican Pride).
In order to support my students in learning about the biology, history, and environmental future of the neighborhood, I attended the Yale National Initiative seminar: “Art, Design, and Biology.” This seminar examined paintings in the Yale Center for British Art collection. By viewing works specifically depicting landscapes of royal residences, flora and fauna, birds and bones, I understand that biology is not only studied by sampling and testing in the lab, it is also studied and recorded in paintings and journals.
The seminar discussions included ways in which documentation of early naturalists and scientists was captured. I learned that scientists befriended artists to record early surgeries. I saw how veins and muscles could be shown to pop off the page as artistic works depicted procedures that early doctors explored. Using cruel methods, all in the name of cures for the ailments of Man, an understanding of biogeography, biodiversity, and basic biology emerged and these eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings still inform us today.
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