Drawing “Octo-Pines”: Ice-Breaker Active-Learning Activities to Introduce Drawing-to-Learn in Biology

Drawing has been advocated as a technique to develop visual literacy and observational skills in biology students. To increase student motivation and confidence to draw in our course, we developed an introductory active-learning lesson with a series of icebreaker activities that promote student creativity and discussion. These activities include a clicker question, group discussions, drawing activities, and a worksheet. During the lesson, student responses generated more than 18 categories of how visuals can be used as a professional practice and as a learning tool in biology, with 14 of these categories overlapping. Students demonstrated interest in using a variety of drawings and visuals to represent various scientific scenarios. In a survey completed after the lesson, students reported that this activity increased their understanding of how drawings are used in the profession of biology and as a learning technique. Students also indicated that while they experienced some discomfort with the exercises, they enjoyed the drawing activities and found them useful. The examples in this lesson can be adapted to fit courses that emphasize drawing, observation, or visual literacy.

Primary Image: “Octo-pine.” To increase student motivation to draw in zoology, the last activity in this lesson asks to students to draw an invertebrate-food combination (e.g., “octopine” = octopus + pineapple; “BEErito” = bee + burrito).

绘图已被提倡作为一种培养生物学学生视觉素养和观察技能的技术。为了提升学生在我们课程中绘图的动力与信心，我们开发了一系列旨在激发学生创造力和促进讨论的破冰活动，并以此为基础构建了一堂入门级的主动学习课程。这些活动包括点击器问题、小组讨论、绘图练习以及工作表。在课程进行过程中，学生的回答产生了超过18种如何将视觉用于生物学专业实践和学习工具的分类，其中14种分类存在重叠。学生们展现了对利用各种绘图和视觉手段来表现不同科学场景的兴趣。在课程结束后进行的一项调查中，学生们报告称，这一活动加深了他们对绘图在生物学专业中的应用及其作为学习技巧的理解。学生们还表示，尽管他们在练习中感受到了一些不适，但仍享受绘图活动并认为其有益。本课程中的实例可适应强调绘图、观察或视觉素养的课程。主要图片：“八爪松”。为了提高学生在动物学课程中绘图的动力，本课程的最后一个活动要求学生绘制一种无脊椎动物与食物的结合体（例如：“八爪松” = 章鱼 + 菠萝；“BEErito” = 蜜蜂 + 墨西哥卷饼）。