Amy N. Spiegel|Julia McQuillan|Peter F. Halpin|Camillia Matuk|Judy Diamond
Engaging Teenagers with Science Through Comics
University of Nebraska–Lincoln|University of Nebraska–Lincoln|New York University|University of California, Berkeley|University of Nebraska–Lincoln
increasingly important citizens especially youth understand vi ruses impact health communities environment particularly youth less interested tra ditional science learning materials comics may provide way engage teenagers scientific formation viruses compared impacts different formats educational materials teenagers knowledge attitudes toward engagement information viruses high school students n 873 randomly assigned read either high quality comic essay viruses latent class analysis grouped youth one four categories captured range low high science identity compared material type comicessay science identity low high knowledge attitudes engagement comicessay differences knowl edge attitudes importance interest viruses across levels science iden tity however teenagers comic group significantly likely want read sim ilar materials teenagers essay group thus indicating engagement effect pronounced among youth low compared higher identity categories findings support notion comics appeal wider audience learners traditional essays still resulting similar knowledge scores suggests comics important effective tool engage broad spectrum youth science learning materials