Comics as an Educational Resource To Teach Microbiology in the Classroom

Abstract

New educational resources are being implemented as an initiative to foster learning. In order to contribute to the toolkit of innovative educational resources, we developed a microbiology comic book. The aim of this comic is to provide educators with a fun, accessible, and rigorous way to generate awareness of the invisible world that surrounds us and that inhabits us. Bacteria have a reputation as harmful and disgusting entities. Mass media, with advertisements of disinfectants, soaps, and house cleaning products, are sending a distorted message about microbes. We must debunk these misconceptions and emphasize the importance of microorganisms, and particularly bacteria, in the environment and our lives. Education is the means to this end, and therefore this comic is intended to help educators teach microbiology in an attractive, accurate, and straightforward way. Here, we present this educational tool and give some tips on the different themes that can be addressed in the classroom using this resource.

Digital Comics in Online Learning During COVID-19: Its Effect on Student Cognitive Learning Outcomes

“…If the teacher only tells stories without showing them in real terms, students will have some misconceptions. Comics are powerful tools for educators to teach challenging science topics quickly, relevant, and efficiently to clarify abstract science concepts to students [34] and prevent students' misconceptions [35]. Indeed, there is a lot of scientific information obtained from the internet, but the teacher's control is needed.…”

Teaching microbiology in times of plague

“…Probably, one of the biggest challenges during the COVID-19 confinement was how to motivate the students to develop the attitude necessary to be lifelong learners and not just to have a big score in their exams. Several strategies have been used aimed towards such motivation such as gamification (Brown et al 2018;Robinson et al 2018;Efthimiou and Tucker 2020) or the intensive use of images in the forms of illustrations (Goodsell and Jenkinson 2018), movies (Sánchez 2011), or comics (Morel et al 2019).…”

Aprendizaje de microbiología experimental en un formato virtual en contexto de pandemia: una experiencia de implementación de actividades con la utilización de un set portátil en la formación de profesores de Biología y Ciencias Naturales

“…Cabe destacar que la enseñanza de la microbiología en aulas escolares mediante herramientas didácticas innovadoras se ha abordado en diferentes países de Latinoamérica. Se mencionan, a modo de ejemplo, un caso de Chile, con la implementación de laboratorios portátiles de microbiología y biología molecular en formato presencial (https://laboratoriosportatiles.cl/), y un caso de Uruguay, con la propuesta de la utilización de cómics para la enseñanza de la microbiología (Morel et al 2019;Scavone et al 2019).…”