Theory of evolution in comics

Evolution has only recently been included in the Swedish Biology curriculum in grades 4–6, starting in 2022.

Previous studies have shown that it is important that students are provided access to concrete materials that can be used as educational resources for meaning making.

The purpose of this research project is to collaborate with teachers to investigate how a concrete material, in this case a comic book, can be used in teaching about evolution, and what function this material has for students´ meaning making.

The comic has been designed by members of the research team to be engaging and fun for children, while illustrating evolutionary patterns and processes.Video observations are made over two 4–8 week periods, with two classes in Years 4–6 and their teachers, to investigate participant interactions with the comic and what evolutionary processes are addressed.

In addition, student assignments (e.g. assessed tasks, drawings, etc.) are collected and teachers and students are interviewed to capture their experiences of using the comic.

The different materials are then analyzed using multimodal content and interaction analysis.The goal with this project is to contribute knowledge about how education on evolution in Years 4-6 can be carried out and how popular science expressions can be used in science education.