The Empowering Learners Handbook is the work of many hands.  Grateful thanks to Ann Dixon and Laura Hummer for editing and updating the 2009 edition, and for their guidance and encouragement.  Deep thanks as well to Nell Anderson, Jody Cohen, Alison Cook-Sather, Anne Dalke, Victor Donnay, Paul Grobstein, and Amanda Root, Bryn Mawr College colleagues who have supported the development and growth of the Empowering Learners course, the creation and revision of the handbook at various points, and students' connections with many of the settings featured in its pages.  Joyful thanks to the students, at Bryn Mawr and Haverford and in many other schools and settings, whose work this is, and is about. 

The Classification Problem

Taxonomists and systematists are interested in understanding evolutionary relationships between living organisms.  This in turn is motivated by an interest to understand the forces and factors that influence evolution within taxa and in so doing, evolution in general.