Comics are a popular art form especially among children and as such provide a potential medium for science education and communication. In an attempt to present science comics in a museum exhibit I found many science themed comics and graphic books. Here I attempt to provide an overview of already available comics that communicate science, the genre of ‘science comics’. I also provide a quick literature review for evidence that comics can indeed be efficiently used for promoting scientific literacy via education and communication. I address the issue of lack of studies about science comics and
Public opinions toward emergent technologies may be highly dependent on the manner in which people are introduced to these technologies for the very first time. In this light, understanding how such first introductions are related to adolescents’ information seeking behaviors and their developing opinions may be particularly interesting because this target public can be considered to be not only future users of the technology but also future decision makers of its development. The present paper presents a case study of the introduction of ecogenomics among 246 adolescents who were asked to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark BosRoy KloetCees KoolstraJaap Willems
Brazilian research has grown intensely in all areas of microbiology, with the increase in the amount of governmental resources for the sector and the strengthening of a greater number of research groups. However, very few academic studies deal with research about teaching and science communication in microbiology. There is no in-depth study of how this topic is currently being divulgated in communication journals, didactic books and the Internet, or about the interest and the difficulties faced by researchers in communicating microbiology to the general public. This paper investigates academic
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniela Franco Carvalho JacobucciGiuliano Buza Jacobucci
This proposed four-year effort envisions a new approach to promoting science literacy through science journalism as a subject of study. It is premised on a critical set of assumptions: (a) Most citizens have the need to interpret scientific information found in popular media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, online resources, science-related television programs); (b) science journalism provides reliable, well-researched science information; (c) authentic science writing provides motivation to learn; and (d) standards and rubrics specifically developed for evaluating students' science-related expository text do not exist. Thus, the project approaches science journalism as a means to assist students to investigate and coherently write about contemporary science and to learn to base assertions and descriptions on reliable, publicly available sources. To this end, the project aims to develop, pilot, and evaluate a model of instruction that focuses on the following aspects: (a) Identifying questions of both personal and public interest; (b) evaluating contemporary science-related issues; (c) making available highly regarded sources of information as exemplars (in-print, online, interviews); (d) synthesizing information; (e) assessing information based on fact-checking using the five Ws (who, what, where, when, and why); and (f) coherently explaining claims and evidence. A hypothesis and a set of research questions guide this effort. The hypothesis is the following: If participating students successfully attain the fundamental elements of the proposed model, then they will become more literate and better critical consumers and producers of scientific information. The main guiding research question of the proposed activity is the following: Does the teaching of science journalism using an apprenticeship model, reliable data sources, and science-specific writing standards improve high school students' understanding of science-related public literacy? Secondary questions include (a) Is the teaching of science journalism an efficacious, replicable and sustainable model for improving science literacy?; (b) How useful are science-related standards and rubrics for scaffolding and evaluating students' science writing and science literacy?; and (c) What is the nature of the engagement in science that this apprenticeship invites?
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan NewmanJoseph PolmanE. Wendy SaulCathy FarrarAlan Newman