This document discusses the importance of visual literacy in STEM education. It argues that imagery is a fundamental part of STEM learning and that students must develop skills in interpreting and communicating information presented visually. The document recommends that educators incorporate visual elements like diagrams, charts, and student sketching into lessons to help students better understand concepts and retain information. It also advocates maintaining science notebooks modeled after Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks to improve student observation, creative expression, and metacognition.

1. The Art of Science Learning
Visual Literacy and Science Education
www.enablinglearning.com

2. Imagery is a fundamental part
of STEM Education.
Educator
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The term relates back to literacy,
generally referring to the interpretation of written and/or
printed text. Modern society’s growing reliance on technology
makes visual literacy increasingly important especially since
today’s young people are consuming more and more informa-tion
in the form of images. Within the context of an educational
environment, visual literacy helps students develop their ability
to understand how to derive meaning from images in addition
to teaching them how to communicate via visual methods.
As educators, we need to
understand the importance of visual literacy in a learning
environment. Imagery is a fundamental part of STEM Education.
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and/or ideas through the use of diagrams, sketches, and charts.
Diagrams help to illustrate concepts by utilizing images rather
represent its corresponding concept and/or idea in a fully
realized form.
The ability to ‘negotiate,
from information presented in a
visual manner,’ is the working
visual literacy. It essentially
describes how people interpret
information presented in the form
of an image.
Visual Literacy

3. “...To be literate one must include
the skill of “reading and writing images...”
To wholly understand how scientific graphics work, students have to
strive to develop their general literacy skills and in particular their
visual literacy abilities. To be literate, one must possess the skill of
“reading and writing images”, which in fact is native to us. The
depiction of ideas through the use of visual representations has always
been a fundamental form of expression in our human culture. Just
think of the caveman and his drawings or the executive and his Clip
Arts in Power Point presentations. Considering all this, it is easy to
conclude that the development of each student’s visual literacy
abilities is extremely important in this day and time not only for
learning in the classroom but also for preparing them for their adult
lives in the workplace.
Given all that we now know, we as educators need to examine
and/or update our current teaching strategies to ensure we
are using images as part of our everyday instruction. Just as
we constantly use written information while teaching, uti-lizing
imagery should be an essential component for
classroom instruction.
Using visual literacy becomes even more essential when working with
English Language Learners (ELL). The use of images and visual
representations become a sort of universal language that enables the
teacher to more precisely convey her topic. Studies show that the
utilization of this method provides each student a higher degree of
comprehension and retention of new vocabulary and concepts.
More than fifty
percent of
science lessons (as
well as standardized
state tests) in today’s
elementary schools use
visual information to
help introduce
concepts. Students
constantly
encounter an
abundance of images
and content from many
multimedia sources.
Developing the ability
to read, process, and
convey meaning from
those images is critical
for student success.

4. According to the developmental molecular biologist Dr. John J. Medina, teachers should use less text and
more pictures to increase engagement and retention. In his book, ‘Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving
and Thriving at Work, Home, and School’, Dr. Medina insists that “text and oral presentations are not just
less efficient than pictures for retaining certain types of information; they are way less efficient. If
information is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested 72 hours after exposure. That
figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a picture.”
After our science-based visual literacy system was implemented recently at a bilingual
classroom (among other research-based strategies), science scores for bilingual students
increased from 35% of students meeting expectations on the state assessment to
unbelievable 95%.
35% 95%

5. 65%
Sketching and Metacognition
Science is defined as “the systematic study of the
structure and behavior of the physical and natural
world through observation and experimentation.”
Thus observation is a primordial step for the
scientific method. If you have never considered
drawing a sketch as a form of note-taking, then
you have to know that this can be a great way to
increase understanding. It has also been found to
be very effective when it comes to helping students
become more observant in the classroom.
Additionally, research clearly shows that
using science notebooks in the classroom
increases student success.
For this reason, we constantly invite teachers and
students to create and maintain a notebook in the
style of the world renowned Leonardo da Vinci’s
notebooks. In his notebooks, we are able to observe
the systematic exploration of the world, its patterns,
and the constant search for the interconnectivity
among the world’s phenomena.
Sketching in the
classroom
According to John Medina, a
molecular biologist at the
University of Washington
School of Medicine and author
of the bestseller “Brain Rules”:
“Text and oral presentations
are not just less efficient than
pictures for retaining certain
types of information; they are
way less efficient. If informa-tion
is presented orally, people
remember about 10 percent,
tested seventy-two hours after
exposure. That figure goes
up to 65 percent if you add a
picture.”

6. For more than 40 years, Leonardo da Vinci gathered his
observations and ideas in his now infamous “Notebooks”. They
include over 100,000 drawings and more than 6,000 pages of
notations. Without a doubt, observation was at the core of his
scientific exploration. Students that create and maintain a science
notebook in the style of the Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks have a
powerful tool that can be used to make connections and to expand
their understanding of the world around them. Student notebooks
become canvases of creativity and it’s an ideal way for students to
express and expand upon their ideas and to more deeply reflect
about their own thought processes. It should also serve as a
catalyst for providing a deeper perception of various concepts
and ideas and ensure the most impactful meaning about them. As
a result, this deeper level of understanding should enhance each
student’s ability to apply these concepts and/or ideas and to share
them with their peers, parents, and teachers.
If you have never considered using sketching as a teaching tool in
your classroom then now is the time. For some students,
sketching is often a faster and less stressful way to put their
thoughts and observations down. Additionally, these sketches
become a highly effective study guide for later review since, as
studies show, recall is so greatly enhanced when utilizing visual
images. Finally, sketching can be incorporated at any age and our
experience has been that students are more willing to ask
questions about what they see when they are sketching. All they
know is that drawing and coloring pictures has always been fun
and learning comes along for the ride and that part of it is the
tangible benefit of it all.
The 3 Basic Steps for
Implementing Visual Literacy into Science Education
Use pictures,
charts, graphs, and dia-grams
for your everyday
instruction.
Invite students
to create, use, and label
pictures, charts, graphs,
and diagrams on their
everyday activities.
Create and maintain
a science notebook in the style of the Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Use the
sketches to help students become better thinkers as this will allow them to make
impactful connections during the process of sketching. You should also employ
model labeling and annotations around the sketches and try to point out possible
connections with other subjects.
Here’s some tasty food for thought! It’s been our experience and opinion that
educators need to use culturally relevant examples and build lesson plans around
students’ experiences. To assure maximum impact we need to (have to) make it
meaningful for the students!

7. Questions or comments about this article,
please write to:
info@enablinglearning.com
For more information about the
Professional Development Workshop “The
Art of Science Learning” please visit:
www.enablinglearning.com/workshops/
www.enablinglearning.com
To get visual resources to help you teach
science and create science notebooks on
the style of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks
(English and Spanish) please visit:
www.enablinglearning.com/classroom-solutions/
Enabling Learning, P.O. Box 76, Lavon, TX 75166, U.S.A
Phone : +1 800 939 3833. Fax : +1 866 386 2136