The Art of Science LearningVisual Literacy and Science Education

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Imagery is a fundamental partof STEM Education.

The term relates back to literacy, generally referring to the interpretation of written and/or printed text. Modern society’s growing reliance on technology makes visual literacy increasingly important especially since today’s young people are consuming more and more informa-tion in the form of images. Within the context of an educational environment, visual literacy helps students develop their ability to understand how to derive meaning from images in addition to teaching them how to communicate via visual methods.

As educators, we need tounderstand the importance of visual literacy in a learning environment. Imagery is a fundamental part of STEM Education.

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and/or ideas through the use of diagrams, sketches, and charts. Diagrams help to illustrate concepts by utilizing images rather

represent its corresponding concept and/or idea in a fully realized form.

The ability to ‘negotiate,

from information presented in a

visual manner,’ is the working

visual literacy. It essentially

describes how people interpret

information presented in the form

of an image.

Visual Literacy

“...To be literate one must includethe skill of “reading and writing images...”

To wholly understand how scientific graphics work, students have to strive to develop their general literacy skills and in particular their visual literacy abilities. To be literate, one must possess the skill of “reading and writing images”, which in fact is native to us. The depiction of ideas through the use of visual representations has always been a fundamental form of expression in our human culture. Just think of the caveman and his drawings or the executive and his Clip Arts in Power Point presentations. Considering all this, it is easy to conclude that the development of each student’s visual literacy abilities is extremely important in this day and time not only for learning in the classroom but also for preparing them for their adult lives in the workplace.

GivEn all that wE now know, wE as Educators nEEd to ExaminE and/or updatE our currEnt tEachinG stratEGiEs to EnsurE wE arE usinG imaGEs as part of our EvEryday instruction. Just as wE constantly usE writtEn information whilE tEachinG, uti-lizinG imaGEry should bE an EssEntial componEnt for classroom instruction.

Using visual literacy becomes even more essential when working with English Language Learners (ELL). The use of images and visual representations become a sort of universal language that enables the teacher to more precisely convey her topic. Studies show that the utilization of this method provides each student a higher degree of comprehension and retention of new vocabulary and concepts.

More than fifty percent of

science lessons (as well as standardized state tests) in today’s elementary schools use visual information to help introduce concepts. Students constantly encounter an abundance of images and content from many multimedia sources. Developing the ability to read, process, and convey meaning from those images is critical for student success.

95%35%

According to the developmental molecular biologist Dr. John J. Medina, teachers should use less text and more pictures to increase engagement and retention. In his book, ‘Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School’, Dr. Medina insists that “text and oral presentations are not just less efficient than pictures for retaining certain types of information; they are way less efficient. If information is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested 72 hours after exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a picture.”

After our science-bAsed visuAl literAcy system wAs implemented recently At A bilinguAl clAssroom (Among other reseArch-bAsed strAtegies), science scores for bilinguAl students incrEasEd from 35% of studEnts mEEtinG ExpEctations on thE statE assEssmEnt to unbEliEvablE 95%.

65%

Sketching and Metacognition

Science is defined as “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation.” Thus observation is a primordial step for the scientific method. If you have never considered drawing a sketch as a form of note-taking, then you have to know that this can be a great way to increase understanding. It has also been found to be very effective when it comes to helping students become more observant in the classroom. additionally, rEsEarch clEarly shows that usinG sciEncE notEbooks in thE classroom incrEasEs studEnt succEss. For this reason, we constantly invite teachers and students to create and maintain a notebook in the style of the world renowned Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. In his notebooks, we are able to observe the systematic exploration of the world, its patterns, and the constant search for the interconnectivity among the world’s phenomena.

skEtchinG in thE classroomAccording to John Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine and author of the bestseller “Brain Rules”:

“Text and oral presentations are not just less efficient than pictures for retaining certain types of information; they are way less efficient. If informa-tion is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested seventy-two hours after exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a picture.”

For more than 40 years, Leonardo da Vinci gathered his observations and ideas in his now infamous “Notebooks”. They include over 100,000 drawings and more than 6,000 pages of notations. Without a doubt, observation was at the core of his scientific exploration. Students that create and maintain a science notebook in the style of the Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks have a powerful tool that can be used to make connections and to expand their understanding of the world around them. Student notebooks become canvases of creativity and it’s an ideal way for students to express and expand upon their ideas and to more deeply reflect about their own thought processes. It should also serve as a catalyst for providing a deeper perception of various concepts and ideas and ensure the most impactful meaning about them. As a result, this deeper level of understanding should enhance each student’s ability to apply these concepts and/or ideas and to share them with their peers, parents, and teachers.

If you have never considered using sketching as a teaching tool in your classroom then now is the time. For some students, sketching is often a faster and less stressful way to put their thoughts and observations down. Additionally, these sketches become a highly effective study guide for later review since, as studies show, recall is so greatly enhanced when utilizing visual images. Finally, sketching can be incorporated at any age and our experience has been that students are more willing to ask questions about what they see when they are sketching. All they know is that drawing and coloring pictures has always been fun and learning comes along for the ride and that part of it is the tangible benefit of it all.

The 3 Basic Steps for Implementing Visual Literacy into Science Education

usE picturEs, charts, graphs, and dia-grams for your everyday instruction.

invitE studEnts to create, use, and label pictures, charts, graphs, and diagrams on their everyday activities.

crEatE and maintaina science notebook in the style of the Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Use the sketches to help students become better thinkers as this will allow them to make impactful connections during the process of sketching. You should also employ model labeling and annotations around the sketches and try to point out possible connections with other subjects.

Here’s some tasty food for thought! It’s been our experience and opinion that educators need to use culturally relevant examples and build lesson plans around students’ experiences. To assure maximum impact we need to (have to) make it meaningful for the students!

Questions or comments about this article,

please write to:

info@enablinglearning.com

For more information about the

Professional Development Workshop “The

Art of Science Learning” please visit:

www.enablinglearning.com/workshops/

www.enablinglearning.com

www.enablinglearning.com/classroom-solutions/

To get visual resources to help you teach

science and create science notebooks on

the style of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks

(English and Spanish) please visit:

Enabling Learning, P.O. Box 76, Lavon, TX 75166, U.S.A

Phone : +1 800 939 3833. Fax : +1 866 386 2136