Science Drawings

I saw this article earlier today:  How to Start Drawing and it made me think of how often I use drawing and sketching in science. 

How do you use drawing in science?  It's easy to think of using drawings and sketches to record observations.  You might sketch what you see in nature or record a drawing of a lab apparatus or show what the result of an experiment looked like.  Drawings are visual information, just as much as graphs, tables, and diagrams.  A drawing can help communicate about an idea and help others understand a concept or process.

As a teacher I often use drawing when teaching science.  I will draw diagrams on the board all the time.  When I'm teaching zoology or biology I often draw out animals to show anatomy or draw diagrams to show how cells go through the process of mitosis.  I draw even more when I teach Earth sciences.  I often draw diagrams to help students understand geologic processes, or how to interpret date (like using rock strata to understand geologic time and relative dating).  From my own experiences with drawing I have found that it does not really matter if you are a good artist.  Most scientific drawings are used to help understand information.  Even a basic drawing with stick figures can help illustrate what part of the body you are referring to or help show basic motion in a process.  I often use words and arrows to label my diagrams, and I have found that my students are able to follow along perfectly fine as I'm drawing and explaining an idea.

I think drawing can be very helpful to student learning.  Drawing activates different parts of the brain than writing or speaking.  If you can layer an activity where students write, draw, and speak about a topic you are allowing them to deepen their own learning process.  I have found that asking students to draw pictures or even concepts about words helps students visualize and increase comprehension of a topic.  Asking students to draw a process or diagram is a quick formative assessment that can help both students and teachers see what students really understand, misconceptions, or ideas that need further discussion and clarification.

I have used sketching and scientific drawing in class for many activities.  If you'd like to see some examples, then visit my store:

Teaching how to Observe:
*Observations & Scientific Sketches for Microscopes and Field Observations - Coming Soon!

Nature Walk Observation Sketches:
*Ornithology Student Bird Walk Observation Record
*Bird Excursion Booklet
*Duck Decoy Lab - Learn How to Use Binoculars

Lab Data Sketches:
*Microscopic Animals Data Sheet
* Microscopic Plants Data Sheet
*Sea Urchin Embryology Data Sheet
*Experimental Design - Training a Spider to Jump

Anatomy Review
*Invertebrate Worm Comparison Foldable for Interactive Notebook
*Vertebrate Skeletons
*Triploblastic Invertebrate Body Cavity Comparison Foldable

Review Books
*DNA Replication Student Created Books - Genetics or AP Biology

Earth Science Diagrams
*Types of Igneous Rocks Organizer and Comparison of Volcanoes Writing Prompt
*Anatomy of a Volcano and 3 Types of Volcanoes

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