Icons of Depth & Complexity

When I was earning my GATE Certification at CalState Fullerton, we learned how to use Sandra Kaplan's Icons of Depth & Complexity. The icon images that were available were pixelated low resolution. So part of my working with them and thinking about them I decided to re-make a set with Adobe Illustrator. One of my educational ideas is that we should present our students with the best quality information, graphics, printouts, etc...

Here is a screen shot of some of what I did:  This is a personal use so I don't think I'm

violating any copyrights. (And Dr Kaplan drop me a note. I've looked for an e-mail address for you. I'd be more than happy to share the high quality vector art images I've made and make any changes.)

My favorite Depth & Complexity Lesson? Harriet Tubman.  Her timeline and multiple perspectives are more exciting than any action movie plot. Born into slavery, escapes to freedom by crossing the Pennsylvania state line, repeatedly returns to Maryland to help many others escape, then the Fugitive Slave Act takes away her safety in Pennsylvania, and the Dred Scott Decision makes her a wanted felon. She recruits for Tom Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, ( he was hanged by the Federal Government) so that makes her a terrorist?)....volunteer nurse for the Union Army, led a raid in South Carolina that freed 750 people... By 1865 she was a national hero. $10 bill? She should probably be on all the money. Harriet Tubman could be the first Depth & Complexity Lesson Action movie. 

As in all things pedagogical a good idea or method is then applied to everything.
I would argue that the icons can be used for science, but it's not the best fit.
So this is what I've been working on.
It's easy to sketch out the basics for science: Mass, Forces (Gravity, Electromagnetic, Strong & Weak Nuclear), Space, Movement, Energy (which can form a different perspective than Force. (How are a battery and an asteroid similar and different?)
I have basically two approaches. First following the Scientific Method. Second is my translation of Kaplan's idea to science concepts. Still very much a work in progress.
Where I think we are heading, actually where I think we have begun understanding where we are heading, is to systematize and organize our thinking, but to not restrict it. Daniel Kahneman and Pinker and others have pointed out that overall we are becoming more intelligent over time.  Maybe the Romans couldn't have had steam trains, but Archimedes was clearly heading in directions we are only beginning to learn are not  exclusively modern. I would like to see these icons used to compare Nikola Tesla to his historical period, and then project the two paths our future could take. (Tesla had a radio controlled boat years before Marconi 'invented' radio-using Tesla's patents.)

 

The icons for classifying a phenomenon or principle. As I've stated, a work in progress. 

 

And this image was just so much fun: I could credit Roy Lichtenstein as a source or inspiration, but he got his visual ideas from comic books... so Boom!

I'm just getting started.