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“File:Three cell growth types.svg” by domdomegg is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Activity 4: Source of image in a variety of resolutions
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I decided to use the same photo which I found for the 2nd activity as there was an extra graphic which represented the process of Meiosis beside the other two processes. I cropped out the meiosis process in order to remove distractions and irrelevant image (Dunlap and Lowenthal, 2016) in order to convey the common processes of asexual reproduction and make it more effective as a visual graphic.
The software that I used was the “Paint” application found on any Windows PC. I am very familiar with cropping images as I tend to use it very often to fit different graphics in my presentations or handouts. Though this may not be related to cropping, I have found that in a Word document, utilizing textboxes and different types of text wrapping while hiding the outline of the textbox can also achieve a similar “cropping” outcome.
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal (2016) Getting graphic about infographics: design lessons learned from popular infographics, Journal of Visual Literacy, 35:1, 42-59, DOI: 10.1080/1051144X.2016.1205832
Activity 5-7
Figure 1. Stages of the Cell Cycle (Mitosis) (GIF)
Cell Cycle: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokinesis
Cell Cycle Mnemonic
Alt Text: A GIF that rotates through diagrams and names of the Cell Cycle (Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokinesis) with a Mnemonic of each stage.
**NOTE** – I could not manipulate the WordPress platform to get both my GIF image and my Mnemonic side by side as that was my intention for the overall graphic.
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Learning Outcome:
Students are expected to know…
- mitosis –the process through which pre-existing cells make two identical copies of themselves
I decided to keep the same theme of Mitosis for students learning the unit of Biology in Science 9 to guide Activity 5-7. What I used was MS Paint on my Dell Tablet which allowed for a much easier drawing experience. The tools within MS Paint that I used included: brush, rectangular and free-form selection, crop, eraser, colours, and size (thickness of lines/eraser). What I ended up doing was creating the first stage of Mitosis which is Interphase. I then used the same template of Interphase to keep the outer circle the exact same, deleted part of the drawing, and created new graphics. I then used “Save As” to create a new file of the new stage. I repeated this process for the other stages. I then created a GIF file via https://ezgif.com/maker. Through this website, I had the GIF cycle through the stages to give a more visual representation of what happens at each stage, and the movement of the chromosomes. Since it was my first time creating something like this, I am happy with the overall result, however, I feel that I could create more sub-steps for a smoother transition in between each step as there is quite a big jump visually, for example, from Anaphase to Telophase. Overall, I think something like this would be a helpful visual tool for students because Dunlap and Lowenthal (2016) stated that “when visuals are used effectively, they serve to help people understand abstract, complicated, and complex information, especially when people are unfamiliar with the concept and do not have a pre-existing mental model to assist with the comprehension of new information.”
Additionally, with the GIF, since the learning outcome is to understand the process of cell division through Mitosis, it is extremely helpful to create a mnemonic to help students remember facts and concepts relating to the stages (Clark and Lyons, 2010). I would typically not show my sample sentence at first so that students can reinforce their own mnemonic in their minds and would show my sentence if some students required any assistance.
References
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal (2016) Getting graphic about infographics: design lessons learned from popular infographics, Journal of Visual Literacy, 35:1, 42-59, DOI: 10.1080/1051144X.2016.1205832
Clark, Ruth C., and Chopeta Lyons. Graphics for Learning : Proven Guidelines for Planning, Designing, and Evaluating Visuals in Training Materials, Center for Creative Leadership, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=624441.
Created from trulibrary-ebooks on 2021-02-16 21:26:02.
Paul Chong
February 17, 2021 — 7:22 pm
Please see section “Activity 5-7” with regards to Activity 6.
Junxiang
February 17, 2021 — 8:54 pm
Hi Paul,
The GIF you created is an excellent example of how media supports learning. Although it might be more apparent to present all phrases at once, it would not have the same “evolving” effect. The visual representations show what happens at each stage with texts next to them, aligned with Mayer’s contiguity principle. Just my humble opinion. If the first letter of each cell cycle in the GIF is also capitalized as the excel you created, it might help identify each stage’s sequential order. Thanks for your sharing!
Paul Chong
February 17, 2021 — 11:53 pm
Thanks for the comment Jun. I definitely missed the boat on the infographic train as many of our classmates made some really nice ones. Thanks for the suggestion! I do have each picture separate. I thought the GIF version was more engaging. But good idea with the first letter bold and underline to match the mnemonic.
Keisha Morong
February 25, 2021 — 4:07 am
Hi Paul,
While I do not doubt you would have made an amazingly beautiful infographic (your work is always so good!!), I really appreciate that you created a gif! I have never made one and honestly did not know how one was made. Your steps seemed clear enough and I will definitely try it some day.
Your gif is engaging and the whimsical nature of it makes it unique and memorable. To confirm, is the purpose of the gif just to memorize the names of the phases? Do the students already know the phases and understand what is happening in each image? As someone not as wise as a grade 9 Science student, I needed a few more labels to understand what I was looking at. Is there any way you could have included something to explain the blue/red/green a little more? For those who did not quite memorize it yet (or clueless people like myself).
Great work!
Best,
Keisha
Paul Chong
February 25, 2021 — 11:37 am
Hi Keisha,
Yes the GIF would be used as supplementary media to help students identify the order of the stages of Mitosis and hopefully, an idea of what happens at each stage. Students would be taught what is happening at each stage, but the GIF is really there to help them visualize each step. I definitely could add more to it, but I think it would be too much text for a GIF type file as it rotates through the image stills. The colours itself don’t have any particular meaning as they would learn in class but is there to enhance the graphic.
Thanks for the feedback!
Keith Webster
March 10, 2021 — 1:52 am
Hi Paul,
These are great examples of working with images and a good example of an animated GIF created for learning.
It’s difficult to do in some WordPress instances, but often an animated GIF can benefit form having a resting state image that is then swapped for the animated GIF when clicked by the student. It’s a simple bit of JavaScript but might not be allowed in some platforms. Fifteen years ago animated GIFs for course sites were a significant part of my day job. We were also handcoding course sites from scratch so a little JavaScript wasn’t a big deal.