Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA
This content will become publicly available on August 21, 2026
Title: Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA
ABSTRACT Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology. Visual literacy, which is the ability to read and interpret visual representations, encompasses a set of skills that are necessary for biologists to effectively use models to communicate about molecular structures that cannot be directly observed. To gauge students’ visual literacy skills, we conducted semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students who had completed at least a year of biology courses. We asked students to draw and interpret figures of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes, and we analyzed their drawings for adherence to conventions for representing scale and abstraction. We found that 77% of students made errors in representing scale, and 86% of students made errors in representing abstraction. We also observed that about half of the students in our sample used the conventional shapes and symbols to represent DNA in unconventional ways. These unconventional sketches may signal an incomplete understanding of the structure and function of DNA. Our findings indicate that students may need additional instructional support to interpret the conventions in common representations of DNA. We highlight opportunities for instructors to scaffold visual literacy skills into their teaching to help students better understand visual conventions for representing scale and abstraction in molecular biology. more »« less
Uminski, Crystal; Newman, Dina L; Wright, L Kate
(, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
Andrews, Tessa
(Ed.)
We explored undergraduate students' visual literacy by asking them to draw and interpret images of chromosomes and found that most students held incorrect or incomplete conceptions about chromosome structure and function. These findings stress the importance of teaching visual literacy skills in biology courses.
Uminski, Crystal; Cammarota, Christian; Couch, Brian A; Wright, L Kate; Newman, Dina L
(, PLOS One)
Wessner, David R
(Ed.)
Visual models are a necessary part of molecular biology education because submicroscopic compounds and processes cannot be directly observed. Accurately interpreting the biological information conveyed by the shapes and symbols in these visual models requires engaging visual literacy skills. For students to develop expertise in molecular biology visual literacy, they need to have structured experiences using and creating visual models, but there is little evidence to gauge how often undergraduate biology students are provided such opportunities. To investigate students’ visual literacy experiences, we surveyed 66 instructors who taught lower division undergraduate biology courses with a focus on molecular biology concepts. We collected self-reported data about the frequency with which the instructors teach with visual models and we analyzed course exams to determine how instructors incorporated visual models into their assessments. We found that most instructors reported teaching with models in their courses, yet only 16% of exam items in the sample contained a visual model. There was not a statistically significant relationship between instructors’ self-reported frequency of teaching with models and extent to which their exams contained models, signaling a potential mismatch between teaching and assessment practices. Although exam items containing models have the potential to elicit higher-order cognitive skills through model-based reasoning, we found that when instructors included visual models in their exams the majority of the items only targeted the lower-order cognitive skills of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Together, our findings highlight that despite the importance of visual models in molecular biology, students may not often have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of these models on assessments.
Uminski, Crystal; Newman, Dina L; Wright, L Kate
(, Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education)
Pandey, Sumali
(Ed.)
ABSTRACT Scientific publications, textbooks, and online educational resources rely on illustrated figures to communicate about molecular structures like genes and chromosomes. Published figures have the potential to shape how learners think about these molecular structures and their functions, so it is important that figures are clear, unambiguous, and free from misleading or incorrect information. Unfortunately, we found numerous examples of figures that contain representations of genes and chromosomes with errors that reflect common molecular biology misconceptions. We found published figures featuring Y-shaped Y chromosomes, replicated chromosomes incorrectly shown with different alleles on sister chromatids, single genes portrayed as wide bands on chromosomes, and genes consisting of only a small number of nucleotides. Drawing on our research on student thinking about visual representations in molecular biology, we critique these published figures that contain such misconceptions and provide recommendations for simple modifications to figures that may help scientists, science illustrators, and science educators more accurately communicate the structure and function of genes and chromosomes.
Newman, Dina L.; Spector, Hannah; Neuenschwander, Anna; Miller, Anna J.; Trumpore, Lauren; Wright, L. Kate
(, Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education)
Visual literacy, which is the ability to effectively identify, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media, is an important aspect of science literacy. As molecular processes are not directly observable, researchers and educators rely on visual representations (e.g., drawings) to communicate ideas in biology.
A brief glance through molecular biology and biochemistry textbooks underscores the importance of interpreting visual images in the molecular life sciences. In fact, biomolecular visual literacy has been deemed a threshold concept, essential for student success in the field. As one example, grasping the information displayed in visual representations is a gateway to a deep understanding of structure-function relationships, a core concept in biology education. Despite much interest, few studies have examined the assessment of visual literacy skills in the area of biomolecules. Ten years ago, BioMolViz began an initiative to improve biomolecular visualization instruction and assessment, which focused on developing validated assessments to probe students' visual literacy skills. In 2023, we introduced the BioMolViz Library, a repository where instructors can access the instruments built by our community. A subset of these assessments were administered in classrooms in a pilot field test during the 2022–2023 academic year. We gained invaluable information from both quantitative and qualitative data collected. Lessons learned from this first classroom test guided the design of the 2023–2024 large-scale field testing we describe here with over ten partner institutions, high enrollment classes, and an increased number of items per survey. We present the results of our analysis of item difficulty, discrimination, and distractor analysis, alongside a robust analysis of the influence of gender and race/ethnicity on student performance. To improve the statistical power of the study, we exchanged open-ended written feedback for an increased number of assessment items administered on each survey. However, recognizing the value of student feedback obtained through a mixed methods analysis from our 2022–2023 study, we followed up with focus groups to explore the perceptions and problem solving process of both low- and high-performing students. We present the results of our assessment validation, including an analysis of the influence of learner level, gender identity, and race/ethnicity on performance. We include suggestions for equitable and inclusive assessment methods as we continue to strive to improve visual literacy instruction. This material is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants RCN-UBE #1920270 and NSF-IUSE #1712268.
Uminski, Crystal, Wright, L Kate, and Newman, Dina L. Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10639688. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education 26.2 Web. doi:10.1128/jmbe.00070-25.
Uminski, Crystal, Wright, L Kate, & Newman, Dina L. Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 26 (2). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10639688. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00070-25
Uminski, Crystal, Wright, L Kate, and Newman, Dina L.
"Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA". Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education 26 (2). Country unknown/Code not available: American Society of Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00070-25.https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10639688.
@article{osti_10639688,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10639688},
DOI = {10.1128/jmbe.00070-25},
abstractNote = {ABSTRACT Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology. Visual literacy, which is the ability to read and interpret visual representations, encompasses a set of skills that are necessary for biologists to effectively use models to communicate about molecular structures that cannot be directly observed. To gauge students’ visual literacy skills, we conducted semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students who had completed at least a year of biology courses. We asked students to draw and interpret figures of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes, and we analyzed their drawings for adherence to conventions for representing scale and abstraction. We found that 77% of students made errors in representing scale, and 86% of students made errors in representing abstraction. We also observed that about half of the students in our sample used the conventional shapes and symbols to represent DNA in unconventional ways. These unconventional sketches may signal an incomplete understanding of the structure and function of DNA. Our findings indicate that students may need additional instructional support to interpret the conventions in common representations of DNA. We highlight opportunities for instructors to scaffold visual literacy skills into their teaching to help students better understand visual conventions for representing scale and abstraction in molecular biology.},
journal = {Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education},
volume = {26},
number = {2},
publisher = {American Society of Microbiology},
author = {Uminski, Crystal and Wright, L Kate and Newman, Dina L},
editor = {Fankhauser, Sarah}
}
Warning: Leaving National Science Foundation Website
You are now leaving the National Science Foundation website to go to a non-government website.
Website:
NSF takes no responsibility for and exercises no control over the views expressed or the accuracy of
the information contained on this site. Also be aware that NSF's privacy policy does not apply to this site.
An official website of the United States government
