El cómic como recurso didáctico en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de las ciencias

Resumen

The main reason we have been working on the following doctoral thesis has been to identify the limits and potential of comics as a tool for popularising science, especially in teaching of natural sciences. Even though I really love drawing comics, I’m a junior high school teacher and… I teach Math… And Physics… And Chemistry… I definitely had to do something not to be hated by my students. That’s why, a few years ago, I began thinking about combining my knowledge and my passion to make Science more enjoyable for my students. This led me to read a lot of comic books about science, so I could better understand how to create a good one for them. But while some of the comics I read were engaging and compelling, others were terribly boring! So, what makes a science comic a useful tool to engage students in understanding difficult concepts of science and what should be avoided? My doctoral research focuses on answering this question, trying to identify the limits and potential benefits of using comics as a tool for scientific divulgation, especially in teaching Science. The work went through two different phases: Firstly we addressed the topic with particular attention to those pedagogical, narrative and visual aspects that, according to scientific research, should be considered to make a compelling comic. Then, we used our findings to revise an old comic strip of mine. The result? A national award-winning science comic. Yes, “Archimedes and the mystery of the crown” won second place at the 2020 edition of the Italian National Science Divulgation Prize. Afterwards, we carried out bibliometric and narrative analysis of actual field experiments that we will explain in detail. The aim was to explore what kind of work has been carried out over the last decade on the topic of comics as a didactic medium for teaching and learning in science. Finally, the result of my research suggest that comics are an effective tool in making science more enticing to the public, and that their effectiveness can be increased through the collaboration of experts in the fields of teaching, scientific divulgation, visual communication and storytelling. So, having fun learning science really is possible!