Drawing Science

To teach chemistry, some college students nowadays are picking up their pencils instead of beakers and test tubes. In "Picturing to Learn," a project supported by the National Science Foundation, college students draw pictures to explain scientific concepts for a typical high school student. The challenge is to boil down a complex idea into its essential elements.

Using stick figures, cartoons or any style they come up with, the co-eds explain everything from chemical bonding to quantum behavior. Some of the students are majoring in chemistry as undergraduates while others study physics and biology.

"Visually explaining concepts can be a powerful learning tool," said Felice Frankel, principal investigator of the project at Harvard University. "The other important part of this is that the teacher immediately identifies student misconceptions," she said.

Students also have to evaluate their work, which helps them better understand the main concepts.

"I've been surprised and very pleased about the enthusiasm and excitement we've seen in some very renowned science professors," said Rebecca Rosenberg, the project manager and a former secondary school science teacher. "They could have pooh-poohed this idea, but instead, they're seeing how it helps inform their teaching."

The project involves five institutions: Harvard, MIT, Duke University, Roxbury Community College and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The goal is to eventually include students of different age levels: middle school, high school and graduate school.

-- Rachel Mahan, LiveScience Staff Writer

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Image Credit: Kara Culligan and Eunji Chung, Harvard University; Lina Garcia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology