Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA.

IF 1.6 Q2 EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES
Crystal Uminski, L Kate Wright, Dina L Newman
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Abstract

Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology. Visual literacy, which is the ability to read and interpret visual representations, encompasses a set of skills that are necessary for biologists to effectively use models to communicate about molecular structures that cannot be directly observed. To gauge students' visual literacy skills, we conducted semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students who had completed at least a year of biology courses. We asked students to draw and interpret figures of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes, and we analyzed their drawings for adherence to conventions for representing scale and abstraction. We found that 77% of students made errors in representing scale, and 86% of students made errors in representing abstraction. We also observed that about half of the students in our sample used the conventional shapes and symbols to represent DNA in unconventional ways. These unconventional sketches may signal an incomplete understanding of the structure and function of DNA. Our findings indicate that students may need additional instructional support to interpret the conventions in common representations of DNA. We highlight opportunities for instructors to scaffold visual literacy skills into their teaching to help students better understand visual conventions for representing scale and abstraction in molecular biology.

粗略的理解:图纸揭示了学生可能需要额外的支持来理解DNA的常见表示的比例和抽象。
分子生物学中的视觉表示倾向于遵循一套共享的惯例,使用特定的形状和符号来传达有关核苷酸、基因和染色体的大小和结构的信息。理解生物学家如何以及为什么使用这些惯例来表示DNA是分子生物学视觉素养的关键部分。视觉素养,即阅读和解释视觉表征的能力,包含了生物学家有效使用模型来交流不能直接观察到的分子结构所必需的一系列技能。为了评估学生的视觉读写能力,我们对完成了至少一年生物课程的本科生进行了半结构化访谈。我们要求学生绘制和解释核苷酸、基因和染色体的图形,并分析他们的图纸是否符合表示比例和抽象的惯例。我们发现77%的学生在表示尺度上犯了错误,86%的学生在表示抽象上犯了错误。我们还观察到,在我们的样本中,大约有一半的学生使用传统的形状和符号来以非常规的方式表示DNA。这些非常规的草图可能标志着对DNA结构和功能的不完全理解。我们的研究结果表明,学生可能需要额外的教学支持来解释DNA共同表示的惯例。我们强调了教师将视觉素养技能纳入教学的机会,以帮助学生更好地理解分子生物学中表示尺度和抽象的视觉惯例。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES-
CiteScore
3.00
自引率
26.30%
发文量
95
审稿时长
22 weeks
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