Teaching Science Communication with Comics for Postgraduate Students

Abstract

Data visualization and visual storytelling are increasingly common terms when institutions and scientists want to introduce people to their research and science through stories. Yet institutions mostly teach and train their scientists in the language of science and scientific journals, whereas research dissemination calls for other forms of communication. A new university course introducing such a new form of communication is proposed to postgraduate students at Université de Sherbrooke since January 2020. Its main objective is to help students develop their general interest and skills into science communication using comics as a working medium. While following a simple path, this course has generally led to results beyond initial expectations and large engagement from students. This study describes the general context and structure of the course, analyzes feedback from participants, presents some results, and summarizes lessons learned to help the diffusion of such a cross-disciplinary course.

Less prescription, more brainstorming: Teaching science and risk communication as a research class

“…While some scientists recognized the pitfalls of being solely cheerleaders for science (Longnecker, 2022), others persisted in framing science communication as often the most important, if not the only way to respond to a crisis. For example, courses have used exercises such as experiential learning (Dohaney, et al, 2016); correcting badly written articles or poorly delivered presentations (AGTR, n. d.); and translating information into videos, infographics (Mercer-Mapstone & Kuchel, 2015), or comics (Robin et al, 2021) to popularize science. If there was any engagement with the audience, it was through the media that the audience was assumed to patronize: through analyzing materials, students were asked to intuit who the audience was and its demographics (Mercer-Mapstone & Kuchel, 2015) -hardly a step into engagement territory.…”

“…The intended results of communication are also more nuanced: understanding science, for example, must be parsed into skills such as understanding scientific information, understanding the processes of science, or understanding connections between science and society (Burns et al, 2003). Also more prevalent is an engagement model of communication, where both policy makers and scientists must find ways to work closely with the public in genuine partnership, beyond one-way flows of information (Burns et al, 2003;Dijkstra et al, 2020;Hebets, 2018;MacArthur et al, 2020;Metcalfe, 2022;Robin et al, 2021;Stern, 1991).…”

Exploring the Potential of Comics for Science Communication: A Study on Conveying COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Information to Black Americans

“…Comics have a long history of being a powerful tool for science education (Robin et al, 2021), dating back to the 1940s (Sones, 1944). However, early representations of Black characters in science-related comics were limited, reflecting the lack of diversity among American illustrators at the time (Marqua, 2020).…”