Drawing to learn in STEM

Scientists, mathematicians and engineers draw
and model to create knowledge. This presentation
will describe a guided inquiry approach to teaching
and learning science that involves students actively
creating visual and other representations to reason
and explain as they explore the material world.
The approach has been successfully used in a
number of major professional learning initiatives in
Victoria and NSW. Evidence will be presented of
increased student engagement and quality learning
flowing from the approach, which aligns classroom
processes more authentically with processes of
imaginative scientific discovery. Examples of activities
and student drawings and model construction
will be used to unpack the relationship between
representation, reasoning and learning. Video
evidence including that generated in the Science
of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) classroom
at the University of Melbourne, equipped with
sophisticated video capture facilities, will be drawn
on to explore ways in which drawing, gesture and
talk are coordinated to imaginatively respond to
material challenges. The presentation will explore
the alignment of these sociocultural analyses to
recent findings from neuroscience. Evidence will
be presented that the creation of representations is
central to quality learning across the STEM disciplines
and for interdisciplinary STEM challenges.