CARTOONING AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR TEACHING EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Abstract Medical education and scientific thinking often involve understanding complex experimental methods. We utilized cartooning as an active learning method for understanding complex experimental methods from a diverse array of scientific articles in an undergraduate scientific thinking course. Here we describe our implementation of cartooning and how it can be used as tool to enhance clarity, instruction, and analysis. A cartoon is a drawing or series of drawings used to illustrate an action or subject. In our implementation as a teaching tool, students created cartoons of experimental methods from a variety of assigned readings using a digital platform to visualize their understanding of the experimental procedures. Cartoons created on the same experimental method by different individuals are rarely identical, thus exposing the entire class to a diversity of understanding. When students produce cartoons demonstrating differences in experimental methods, the flexible nature of cartooning enables editing or the addition of details to improve the accuracy of the illustrated procedure. Additionally, over the course of the semester the level of detail and clarity of the cartoons evolves thus serving as qualitative assessment of student understanding of experimental procedures throughout the course. Cartooning enables students to visualize their understanding of complex scientific methods and to think critically about the experimental design process. Visualization of how students represent experimental methods reinforces the deeply thoughtful and creative nature of experimental design as well as facilitates the assessment of student growth and evolving comprehension of the scientific method.