“I enjoyed getting to mix and overlap and expand those different knowledge bases in a way that someone else might not think to do or might not want to do,” Bock said.

McCarty said he hoped Bock’s model could be exhibited somewhere on campus so her project could reach a wider audience.

“It was so well done,” Kenen said of the model.

“It was thinking through and communicating visually the important scientific information in this iconic image while creating a tool that the faculty are going to use going forward.”

Kenen noted that broadening the Conant Prize criteria to include non-writing projects “sits very well” with Conant’s initial vision for Gen Ed.

When Conant became University president, he was a leader in launching the Gen Ed program and prioritized the creation of science courses that non-scientists would take, enjoy, and learn from, explained history of science professor emeritus Everett I. Mendelsohn.

“My own sense was that he was just deeply engaged in trying to transform education at the college level in general,” said Mendelsohn, who came to Harvard as a graduate student just as Conant’s presidency ended.

Conant had taken a leave of absence during World War II to act as a science advisor, and Mendelsohn said Conant felt that “in the postwar period there was the sense that we had to do something more, that we wanted to somehow improve the nature of education and society.”

The Conant Prize winners from both fall and spring courses will be announced officially at the end of the year, Kenen said.

—Staff writer Julie R. Barzilay can be reached at jbarzilay13@college.harvard.edu.