The development of science process skills, such as observation, measurement, classification, experimentation and communication, should be a desired outcome of undergraduate instruction ("Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology," AAAS, 2011), and the development of scientific visual literacy by interpreting and creating visual representations is an important part of science communication (Arneson and Offerdahl, 2018). Many students like to engage in the relaxation of drawing for recreation purposes, and more structured activities can give them an opportunity to combine aspects of visual and spatial representation, creativity and problem-solving in a classroom setting. With practice, students can learn to focus on the important concepts of visual representation and use a variety of forms in their communication. Students in my Fall 2019 Fundamentals of Life Science course were given a small unknown drawing (representing a portion of an animal cell image) and worked in pairs to translate the small drawing by scaling it up to a letter paper-sized image. Students then worked collaboratively to determine the placement and orientation of their scaled-up drawing to create a larger recognizable image (now a 15-sheet (5x3) letter paper mosaic).
Results/Conclusions
Students were surveyed following the activity and reported that they enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspect, as well as the opportunity to draw/color in a manner that was “appropriate for the class” and “for a larger purpose.” During student interactions, I observed emergent creative ideas (such as using the original images to help guide placement of the larger mosaic pieces), suggesting that students were deriving additional cognitive benefits from the activity. Whole class discussion followed the activity, with an emphasis on the collaborative and problem-solving nature of science, as well as the importance of the cell as a conceptual and physical foundation in biology. By incorporating drawing opportunities in their classes, instructors can provide students with an additional cognitive strategy for communication, in ways that are engaging and low risk, while also using cooperative communication skills to solve the visual “big picture.”