Science via Comics

Recently, I was reading my soon-to-be-5 year old kid a kids’ encyclopedia on sea animals. The format of the book was to ask a question on each page and then proceed to answer it (along with photos). That format (ask and answer a specific question) is far more interesting to kids than the narration of tens of facts without any apparent why am I being told all this?

The other thing the book had, which I didn’t pay much attention to, was a single panel comic drawing on almost every page to amuse the kid: stuff like a fish sleeping on a bed after switching off the light.

It turns out that drawing comics as a way to teach science is an approach actually adopted by a guy named Jon Chad! One of his Science comics is titled Science Comics: Volcanoes: Fire and Life. So why does he take this approach?

“I think when a reader can link a fact (or, their memory of acquiring a fact) to some sort of immersive narrative moment, there's a relationship that forms that is stronger than if you just encounter the fact a cold, emotionless description. For example, I learned about ferromagnetism from an episode of the Justice League cartoon. Me telling you that magnets lose their attractive qualities if they are heated to a certain point is not nearly as exciting as seeing someone with magnetic powers lose them when blasted by someone throwing fire.”

Interestingly, Chad feels one should be open about teaching being the intent of the comic rather than sneaking it in as part of a supposedly entertaining story:

“I am very committed to making work that isn't a Trojan Horse for science facts. I'm not trying to trick readers into learning. I don't want them to walk away and realize, "hold on, I just learned something!" There's no reason for authors to hide the science from readers.”

The second part made me think: who cares if they learnt as long as they had fun? The answer, of course, is that kids do: they feel you tricked them into learning something in their (shudder) free time! Plus, you’re taking the risk that they don’t like the comic, in which they feel even more angry. So I’ll say that Chad has thought this through.