Scientific illustration as a pedagogical tool in interdisciplinary projects

Nabernik, Marija (author)

We first encounter scientific illustration at a very early age, when we get our hands on our first popular science picture book, or when entering the education system. Most of us learn from scientific illustration, and some of us create it. Among the latter are students of illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Scientific illustration is part of our curriculum, and we also explore it further in specific workshops and summer schools. In this paper, we will present the methods used in this learning process. We will discuss how the visual arts and science are connected and how they can work together to help us understand, create, and design educational content and teaching aids. We will define scientific illustration and its place in the field of illustration. We will explore its forms and expressive techniques. We will touch upon established codes and conventions in depicting images. Our focus will be on the use of illustration as a method in pursuit of a learning outcome. We will introduce the drawing method used in teaching natural science illustration. The process of working on the project Marine Organisms for the Blind and Partially Sighted, where we created tactile illustrations for the blind and partially sighted, will be presented in detail. In this project, we also involved expressive techniques that had specific properties which had the potential to achieve the desired final result.

• Language: English
• Keywords: visual communication, illustrations, images, etc. in education, didactics, scientific illustration, drawing as a teaching method, interdisciplinarity
• Work type: Other
• Typology: 1.16 - Independent Scientific Component Part or a Chapter in a Monograph
• Organization: ALUO - Academy of Fine Arts and Design
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. [102]-125
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169979
• UDC: 37-091.3:74
• DOI: 10.51938/9789612975920
• COBISS.SI-ID: 240287491
• Publication date in RUL: 30.06.2025

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Illustrating the invisible : towards an inclusive society for blind and partially sighted
• Editors: Petra Černe Oven
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: University of Ljubljana Press
• Year: 2025
• ISBN: 978-961-297-595-1
• COBISS.SI-ID: 236649475

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vizualna pismenost, ilustracije, slike ipd. v vzgoji in izobraževanju, didaktika, vizualne komunikacije, znanstvena ilustracija, risarske tehnike, interdisciplinarnost

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0452
• Name: Vizualna pismenost