Join us at 2:00 PM EASTERN (11:00 AM PACIFIC) on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 for a convo with Dr. Dina Newman and Dr. Crystal Uminski.

Molecular biologists often represent concepts with abstract illustrations that contain shorthand symbols and shapes to convey concepts related to DNA, genes, and chromosomes. The DNA Landscape is a 3x3 matrix of scale (from nucleotide to chromosome) and abstraction (from realistic shape to fully symbolic) that describes the wide variety of visual representations used in the field of molecular genetics to discuss DNA.

An expert can quickly recognize and interpret these illustrations, but we find that students often struggle to appropriately decode the information contained within them. Furthermore, experts can relate one representation to another and move easily between them, while our research shows that students often do not know how they relate to each other.

When we probe students’ mental models, we find surprising disconnects between their words and their drawings. Instructors often present illustrations to the class and assume that their meaning is obvious. However, our research underlines the importance of explicitly discussing the conventions used in illustrations to help students develop the ability to “read” across the many different representations of DNA, genes, and chromosomes used in primary literature.

Dr. Dina Newman is a Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Research Director for RIT’s Center for Advancing Scholarship to Transform Learning and co-founder of the Undergraduate Genetics Education Network. Her primary research interests include conceptual understanding of molecular genetics and visual representations of DNA. She has published approximately 30 peer-reviewed papers in biology education research and has led approximately 20 workshops about teaching and learning in the past 10 years.

Dr. Crystal Uminski is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research interests include assessment in introductory biology courses and visual literacy in molecular biology. She was a recipient of a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and has won multiple awards for her science communication.