Running Head: MEDT 7490 FINAL ASSIGNMENT

MEDT 7490 Final Assignment

Cheryl Lee Norfleet
University of West Georgia

MEDT 7490 FINAL ASSIGNMENT

My client is Mrs. Julie Scott, a science teacher at Rutland High School in Macon, Georgia. Mrs.
Scott expressed to me an interest in using comics in her classroom. After talking with her, we
have decided to utilize comic strips to represent knowledge of lab safety. The standard that this
lesson addresses is SCSH2: Students will use standard safety practices for all classroom
laboratory and field investigations.
In the past, Mrs. Scotts students have created hand-written, text-heavy posters about lab safety
that were not appealing or exciting. The students would later give an oral presentation about
their poster, and presentations were followed by a lab safety quiz. We are utilizing teens high
interest in comics and graphics, as well as offering them choices in their method of creation to
increase their engagement. This methodology also employs dual coding theory, as their comics
will include labels about what they are demonstrating. We will also employ Mayers multimedia
theory through the students oral presentations of their comics, as other students see the visual as
they hear the explanation.
We have selected Pixton to use for this lesson, as there is a wide variety of science related images
available in their library, and the tool allows for extensive customization. Using this service also
eliminates any copyright issues that we may encounter with using other sources. We will use
Pixtons YouTube channel which has a series of videos about how to use Pixton, as well as
conducting a demonstration for the students prior to their visits to the computer lab. As the
media specialist, I will be present during their time in the computer lab for creative and technical
support. For differentiation, we will also allow students to draw their comics in lieu of using the
computer.

MEDT 7490 FINAL ASSIGNMENT

Students will present their comic and provide a short oral presentation using the classroom
digital projector. The teacher will use the comics created by the students to construct a lab safety
quiz utilizing a single comic example of each lab safety item.
This assignment addresses indicators in all seven of the ACRL Visual and Literacy Competency
Standards. Copyright should not be an issue, as students will be instructed to use only graphics
made available within Pixton for this assignment. Additional time will be required to instruct
students on the use of Pixton. The teacher intends to use this tool for future assignments as well,
so she feel that this time is a worthwhile investment. As with any creative assignment, keeping
teens focused on the task at hand and ensuring that appropriate lesson content is addressed is
crucial. However, I look forward to seeing what the students create to visually represent items
that have been boring in the past. Below is a sample that we will share with the students.