Picturing to Learn (PtL) is founded on the following core premises:
 |
From a student’s perspective: undergraduate students can clarify their own understanding of scientific concepts and processes by creating drawings that explain these concepts to non-experts. |
 |
From a teacher’s perspective: drawings can be useful as: • assessment tools, allowing instructors to identify students' scientific understanding and pinpoint their misconceptions • educational tools, to help inform instructors’ lecture preparation |
Background:
After a successful pilot project, the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education has funded this Phase 2 expansion of Picturing to Learn for another two years (Sept. 1, 2007 – Aug. 31, 2009). The expanded project currently involves science students and faculty from Harvard, MIT, Duke University and Roxbury Community College, along with design students and faculty from the School of Visual Arts, New York. The project is part of the Envisioning Science Program at Harvard University’s Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC).
Picturing to Learn is creating a database of more than 4,000 drawings from various undergraduate science courses. (To see an example of a database entry, click here). Students are asked to “Create a freehand drawing to explain to a high school senior…” a scientific phenomenon. For evaluation purposes, students and teaching assistants are also asked to respond to questionnaires.
The idea began with Principal Investigator Felice Frankel’s experiences while working with scientists to visually express their research. It was clear that when the researcher created drawings to explain to her the phenomena, the process itself seemed to clarify the science in the mind of the researcher. Frankel approached a team of educators and cognitive scientists with the idea of using this in the classroom and all agreed this would be an innovative approach for teaching and learning.
