ARTICLE: STEM & Visual Learning: A Vital Combination

[Ryan Goble]

This article from Middle Web is well written and IMHO essential...

If we hope to foster authentic STEM skills, we must recognize that drawing in integrated literacy is not about Art or talent, but about hands-on problem solving and communicating ideas in the most direct way. As the National Science Foundation says, “You can do science without graphics, but it is very difficult to communicate it in the absence of pictures; indeed some ideas can only be made comprehensible as images.” (NSF Science and Visualization Challenge 2007)

Of course teaching is all about making ideas comprehensible, and we can see ISL at work with teachers like Jon Moss who come to teaching from engineering. He often builds pictures, drawing step by step, to make complex concepts like the doppler effect easier for students to grasp. Moss also challenges his students to grow their own drawing visualization skills (often neglected in school since the early grades) by telling them, “You can’t solve the tough problems without drawing

Read it NOW, really, you don't want to miss it!