Teaching Tips

Development and Use of VisualExplanations: Harnessing the Power

of the “Seeing” Brain to EnhanceStudent Learning

Shelly J. Schmidt

ABSTRACT: When students come to class, theybring with them the most powerful processorknown to man—the human brain! Our job asteachers is to discover and implement practicesthat will make the most effective use of thosebrains. The human brain is a very powerfulprocessor of sensory information, especiallywith regard to the sense of vision. We canharness the power of the “seeing” brain toenhance students’ learning by providing(“feeding”) our students with concreteexperiences that are replete withinformation-rich visual explanations, such asimages, diagrams, graphs, video clips,animations, anthropomorphic images, cartoons,samples, demonstrations, experiments, andperformances of our subject matter, rather thanrelying on word-only (verbal and/or text)explanations. As far as our brains areconcerned, the old saying “A picture’s worth athousand words” is really true! Thus, the focus ofthis teaching tip is to explore the benefits andpractical aspects of “feeding” visualexplanations (“food”) to the sensory portion ofour students’ brains to enhance their learningand to encourage others to not only use visualexplanations in their teaching, but also todevelop visual explanations specific to theirsubject matter and to share them with others.This article also provides students andinstructors alike with 3 animations, in QuickTimeformat, and a PowerPoint presentationcontaining a number of example visualexplanations. These materials are available assupplementary materials on the journal websiteand can be downloaded for free educational use.

IntroductionAs a teacher, I am constantly searching for new ways to enhance the learning

of my students. I will try anything, if it will help my student learn the subjectmatter better. Though my quest for enhancing the learning of my students hasled me down a number of paths and practices (see, for example, Schmidt 1999;Javenkoski and Schmidt 2000; Schmidt and Javenkoski 2000; Schmidt andothers 2005; and Bohn and Schmidt 2008), one of my favorite and most effectivelearning enhancer is the use of “visual explanations.”1 Let me explain.

When our students come to class, they bring with them the most powerfulprocessor known to man—the human brain! Our job as teachers is to discoverand implement practices that will make the most effective use of those brains. Ibegun searching the literature regarding how people learn (see, for example,Dale 1946, 1954; Leamnson 1999; Bransford and others 2000; Mayer 2001;Halpern and Hakel 2002; Zull 2002; Terry and others 2004; Mayer 2005a) tosee what I could discover regarding how best to “feed” my students’ brains, andwhat I found was exciting!

From a biological perspective, when learning takes place, it occurs viaphysical changes in the learner’s brain, that is, formation and elimination ofsynapses, the connections between neurons (Zull 2002). Thus, teaching is the artof facilitating changes in the learner’s brain. Teachers can craft conditions thatlead to changes in the learner’s brain by creating an environment andimplementing practices that nurture brain development. Concrete experiences2

provided to the sensory portion of the brain are key to creating such a richlearning environment. The human brain is a very powerful processor of sensoryinformation, especially with regards to the sense of vision. As far as our brainsare concerned, the old saying “A picture’s worth a thousand words”3 is reallytrue! We can harness the power of the “seeing” brain (Zull 2002, p 137) toenhance students’ learning by providing (“feeding”) our students with concreteexperiences that are replete with information-rich visual explanations, such as

MS 20080902 Submitted 11/12/2008, Accepted 2/27/2009. Author is with Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, 367 Bevier Hall, 905 South GoodwinAve., Urbana, IL 61801, U.S.A. Direct inquiries to author Schmidt (E-mail: sjs@illinois.edu).

1 The term “visual explanations” comes from the title of the excellent book by Edward R. Tufte (1997)entitled Visual Explanations—Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, which analyzes theeffectiveness of figures and diagrams in communicating ideas.2 Concrete experiences consist of physical information from the world (for example, the classroom)and from the students’ bodies that enters their brain through the sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose,skin, mouth, internal organs, joints, and muscles) and are sent in parallel to the emotional monitorand the specific parts of the brain for each of the senses (visual cortex, auditory cortex, and so forth)(Zull 2002, p 137).3 See Daryl Hepting’s website for the interesting history of “A picture’s worth...” saying (March1999), http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/∼hepting/research/web/words/history.html#TOP (accessed Jan24, 2009).

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Visual explanations . . .

images, diagrams, graphs, video clips, animations,anthropomorphic images, cartoons, samples, demonstrations,experiments, and performances of our subject matter, ratherthan relying on word-only (verbal and/or text) explanations. Thevisual explanations we “feed” our students should, in the wordsof Edward Tufte, cause them “Look, look, see, see, think, think”(Tufte 2004).

At this point some readers maybe saying, “But I already usevisual aids in my teaching.” Using visual aids in our instructionis a good start; however, what I am advocating is the intentionaldevelopment and use of effective and efficient visualexplanations based on current research in human learning,pedagogy, and instructional technology (Terry and others 2004).In this learner-centered approach, the use of visual explanationsis vital to instructional planning, delivery, and most importantly,student learning, not just supplementary.

Visual Explanation BenefitsVisual explanations increase the authenticity of the learning

experience (students get to see the real thing) and bring the“unseeable” into the classroom. For example, it is not usuallypossible to arrange a field trip for a large enrollment course thatmeets 3 times a week for 50 min, due to time and spaceconstraints. However, it is possible to obtain a short video clip ofa manufacturing process (for example, extrusion of snack foods)to show and discuss in class. Another example to increase theauthenticity of the learning experience is the use of molecularlevel animations of chemistry principles and processes, wherethe “real thing” is too small or too fast to observe.

One of the key benefits of using visual explanations is bestexpressed in the words of Richard Mayer (2005b, p 1) “Peoplecan learn more deeply from words and pictures than from wordsalone.” Human minds have 2 information-processing systems, 1for verbal material and 1 for visual material. Multimedialearning research suggests that using both systems, rather thanone or the other, results in deeper learning (Mayer 2005b). Deepor meaningful learning is distinguished by both good retentionperformance (that is, how much was remembered or thequantity of learning) and good transfer performance (that is, howwell someone can use what they have learned or the quality oflearning). This, however, does not mean that all “pictures” areequally effective in producing deep learning; what is needed isa research-based understanding of both how people learn fromwords and pictures (termed multimedia learning) and how todesign multimedia instruction that advances learning (Mayer2005b). The Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Mayer 2005a),a comprehensive summary of research on multimedia learning,provides the interested reader with such an understanding.

Over the years, I have “gathered”4 and created a largenumber of visual explanations for use in the courses I teach. Theuse of visual explanations is most effectively applied to conceptsthat students seem to have difficulty grasping. I have come todescribe these difficult-to-grasp concepts as “cognitive stickyspots.” One of the most successful methods I have used foridentifying my students’ cognitive sticky spots is the in-classmicrotheme assignment. As we have implemented them,microthemes, or quick writes, are an in-class,writing-for-learning assignment during which students scriptbrief (micro) responses to selected questions (themes) pertinentto the lecture topic (Schmidt and others 2002). One huge

4 When using gathered (for example, from published literature, World WideWeb or videos) visual explanations, it is important to abide by copyright law.Often one time use for educational purposes is covered by fair use, but it is stillimportant to always give credit where credit is due.

benefit of using in-class microthemes is that they provide theinstructor with a window into the students’ real time thinkingprocess about the subject matter. In-class microthemes askstudents to reflect on “what they do or don’t understand rightnow about what’s being talked about in-class.” One specifictype of microtheme question that has proven very beneficial forprobing what students do not understand or find confusing is themuddiest point microtheme (Mosteller 1989). At the end oflecture, I ask my students to share with me what was least clear,or “muddiest point,” to them in today’s lecture. Through the useof the muddiest point microtheme, I now have a running list ofstudent generated cognitive sticky spots that need visualexplanations. After a cognitive sticky spot has been identified, aspecific student-centered objective (Student will be able to. . . )at the desired cognitive level5 is developed, which then drivesthe design of the visual explanation, serves as an anchor pointduring the development process, and focuses the students onwhat they need to know (or learn) and, moreover, “what theyneed to do with what they need to know” (Buriak 2008). Once avisual explanation has been implemented for a specificcognitive sticky spot, informal observation has shown that thefrequency of that cognitive sticky spot appearing on themuddiest point microtheme cards decreases and may even beeliminated.

Visual Explanation ExamplesTable 1 and associated PowerPoint slides (available as

supplementary materials) contain a sampling of some of thevisual explanations that I have developed for use in FSHN 101Introduction to Food Science and Human Nutrition. Describedin Table 2 and 3 are recently developed animations designed toenhance the learning of food chemistry concepts by connectingfor the students what they can see (macroscopic observations)and are familiar with (prior knowledge)6 with what they cannotsee (molecular level) and need to learn. These animations wereproduced in cooperation with students and staff memberstrained in animation software programs from the Univ. of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign (Ill., U.S.A.) Visualization, Media, andImaging Lab. (VMIL) at the Beckman Inst. for Advanced Scienceand Technology and the Advanced Animation class in theDigital Media Program in the Computer Science and InformationTechnology Dept. at Parkland College, Champaign, Ill., U.S.A.

Regarding the cost of the animation, 2 different compensationarrangements have been employed. For the Lipid animation, anIllinois student was hired and paid by the hour ($10/h for about80 h). For the Emulsion ($600) and Browning ($800) animations,a fixed price was determined at the beginning of the project. Forthe Emulsion animation, a former Parkland College animationstudent was hired. For the Browning animation, the AdvancedParkland College Animation Class worked in conjunction withthe VMIL personnel. Since this was the 1st cooperative projectbetween the 2 groups, the fixed price was set at a nominal fee.The actual cost for the Browning animation was determined tobe approximately $8000. For both types of arrangements, the

5 I have found it helpful to construct the student-centered objective using actionverbs appropriate for each of the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of EducationalObjectives for the cognitive domain (Bloom 1956) or the revised revision pro-posed by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001). For lists of verbs appropriate for eachcognitive level do an Internet search for Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs.6 The importance of starting with students’ prior knowledge when trying to addnew knowledge is strongly emphasized by the findings of brain science research(Zull 2002). However, this is not a new idea, as stated by David Ausubel in 1968(p vi) “If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, Iwould say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what thelearner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.”

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Table 1—Examples of some of the visual explanations developed for use in FSHN 101 Introduction to Food Science and Human Nutrition.The PowerPoint (PPT) slides are available as Supplementary Materials.

Visual explanation type, example topic, Sample student-centered objectives and activityand PowerPoint slide numbers description (where appropriate)

Detailed explanatory imagesPhase diagram of waterPPT Slides 1 to 9

Students will be able to recognize the importance of the water phase transitions tomany food processes and products, such as evaporation (concentrated anddehydrated foods), freezing (frozen foods), and sublimation (freeze-dried foods).

Video and animation clips See Table 2 for examples.Anthropomorphica imagesHydrogen bonding of water moleculesPPT Slide 10

Students will be able to describe the number and type of hydrogen bonds that occurbetween water molecules in water.

CartoonsWater mobility influenced by sample compositionPPT Slide 11

Students will be able to explain the mobility of water molecules as influenced bysample composition.

DemonstrationsMaking liquid N2 ice cream

Students will be able to examine the interconnection between phase transitions (forexample, liquid to gas) and heat transfer.

PPT slides 12 to 16 Students will be able to explain the effect of fast freezing on frozen food quality.ExperimentsInteraction between color and taste perceptions

Students will be able to observe how the human senses influence each other to make asensory prediction.

PPT Slides 17 and 18 Two student volunteer groups each taste a set of liquids and are asked to determine theflavor of each liquid. In 1 set of liquids, the color and flavor match and in the otherthe color and flavor do not match.

Performances (also termed Food Science Theater)How the refrigerator works

Students will be able to describe how the four mechanical parts of a refrigerator workto cool the food inside.

PPT Slides 19 and 20 Student volunteers become the 4 mechanical parts of the refrigerator and using signsact out the flow and phase transitions associated with the refrigerant passing throughthe parts.

aRecall that anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others.

Table 2—Three recently developed animations developed to enhance student learning of food chemistry concepts.

Topic (animation length) Description of content Student-centered objective

Relationship betweenfatty acid structureand physical state(2:50 mins)

It is important to understand the relationship between the chemical structureof a fatty acid molecule and its functionality, termed structure–functionrelationship. This structure–function relationship concept is illustrated byexploring the effect of carbon–carbon double bonds on the physical stateof lipids at room temperature.

Students will be able to explain therelationship between the chemicalstructure of a fatty acid and itsmelting temperature and state atroom temperature, solid (fat), orliquid (oil).

Nature and use ofemulsifiers in foods(5:46 mins)

Most everyone knows that oil (lipids) and water do not mix. However, inmany foods, lipids and water need to be mixed and stay mixed to producethe desired food systems. Examples of such food systems include saladdressings, butter, and mayonnaise. Emulsifiers are molecules that containboth a hydrophilic (water loving) and hydrophobic (water hating) portion.These molecules are extensively used in commercial food products tokeep lipids and water mixed.

Students will be able to describe thestructure and function of anemulsifier molecule and to identifyvarious classes of emulsifiers.

Browning reactions infoods (6 mins)

Browning reactions in foods produce both desirable (that is, the golden colorand delicious smell of baked products) and undesirable (that is,development of brown color on the cut surface of an apple) effects.However, sorting through the differences and similarities between thedifferent types of browning reactions can be challenging. Thus, enzymaticand nonenzymatic browning reactions that occur in foods are discussedand a number of common examples are shown.

Students will be able to describe thevarious browning reactions that canoccur in foods and give examples ofboth desirable and undesirableeffects that browning has on foods.

benefit to the animator was that the finished product becamepart of their portfolio.

Regarding the production of the animation, I was responsiblefor developing the scientific content and associated script,which became the animation storyboard. The animationstoryboard was developed via a collaborative effort between theanimators and myself. The animators were responsible fordeveloping the visual content. Funding for the animations wasobtained from a number of small in-house grants (seeAcknowledgments). The animation was developed employing acollaborative, iterative process where the animators designed asegment of the animation; I then provided them with scientificcontent feedback, after which the animators redesigned the

animation segment (that is, design-feedback-redesign). Theprocess continued until everyone was satisfied that theanimation segment was scientifically and pedagogically sound.Also, during the development of the animations, experts in thespecific food chemistry concept being animated were asked toprovide their feedback on the scientific accuracy of theanimation. In addition, food science and human nutritionstudents at a variety of levels (freshman through graduatestudents) were asked to provide their feedback on theeffectiveness of the animation for learning. Feedback from these“external” sources was also used to improve the animationquality and effectiveness. At the beginning of each animationthere is a statement or question posed based on the

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student-centered objective to aid students in managing thecognitive load imposed by the animation, since even short (30 s)animations can contain a large amount of information. Thus,before viewing the animation, students know what informationthey are responsible for obtaining from the clip.

The animations described in Table 2, as well as all othervisual explanations used in FSHN 101 (e.g., Table 1), are shownduring class (along with additional verbal explanations asneeded) and are available 24/7 on the course website7

(Javenkoski and Schmidt 2000) for students to review as manytimes as needed. This anytime, anywhere access for repeatedvisual explanation viewing serves to further enhance studentlearning. The 3 animations, in QuickTime movie format, areavailable as supplementary material and can be downloaded forfree educational use. (See “Supplementary Material” associatedwith this article in the table of contents for this issue.) Addingvisual explanations to a course can be an overwhelming task. Somy advice is: (1) start slowly and build up momentum by addinga new (harvested or created) visual explanation each time youteach a section of the course; (2) invest in visual explanationreflection time, asking questions such as “What do I want mystudents to learn?” “What concepts are they having difficultyunderstanding?” and “How can I help them “see” it?”; and (3)think visually!

Visual Explanation LimitationsUnfortunately, no learning enhancer is perfect, including the

use of visual explanations. One of the limitations associatedwith visual explanations is the challenge associated withdeveloping scientifically accurate, yet not overly complicated,schematic representations (abstractions) of molecular levelevents. It is important to strike a balance between incorporatingtoo many and too few details. Too many details (for example,showing all the hydrogen bonds) can make the visualexplanation seem overwhelmingly complicated, while too fewdetails (for example, only showing the key hydrogen bonds) canharm the scientific accuracy of the visual explanation, leadingto an overly simple, or even incorrect, understanding of theunderlying concept(s). In both cases, the visual explanationdoes not achieve its intended goal of enhancing students’conceptual understanding at the appropriate cognitive level.

Another limitation associated with visual explanations tokeep in mind is that just like beauty, interpretation of the visualexplanation lies in the eye of the beholder. No matter how hardI try to make my visual explanations “interpretation proof,” I stillhave students that interpret some part of a visual explanationdifferently than I intended, resulting in what I call unintentionalmisconceptions. To help minimize these unintentionalmisconceptions, I now pay very close attention to every aspectof the visual explanation that I am developing, such asproportionality, shading and color choices, and line types andweights, just to name a few.

Paying very careful attention to the details is also a key pieceof advice when using visual explanation from the literature,including the Internet. Unfortunately, more than once I havelocated a figure to use and found that after careful inspectionthat one (or more) details were illustrated incorrectly. Anexample of this problem, which I recently ran into, was a figureof the phase diagram of water illustrating the freezing pointdepression and boiling point elevation effects of adding a soluteto water. The magnitude of freezing point depression (�Tf witha constant of 1.86 ◦C/molal) is larger than the magnitude of

7 General public access to the FSHN 101 course website is not available, sinceall Illinois Compass course websites are password protected.

boiling point elevation (�Tb with a constant of 0.52 ◦C/molal);however, the opposite was illustrated in the figure.

Lastly, what about the usefulness of visual explanations forhearing impaired or visually impaired students? For hearingimpaired students, closed captioning, including speech andnonspeech elements, could be incorporated into the animations.Though not primarily designed for the visually impaired student,visual explanations can still be used, if, as discussed by Lee andothers (1996), the teacher explains verbally the overall structureof the material, as well as the structure of each individual visualelement, before it is presented. The objective of explaining thestructure of the material is to help the student create a mentalmodel of the material to which he or she can then attach theinstructor’s verbal explanation of the content. As noted by Leeand others (1996), “With this orderly approach, not only dovisually impaired students gain greater understanding, butsighted students also have time to better comprehend theinformation and associate facts with the mental images. Bothtypes of students need to create a memory frame for storing newinformation.”

ConclusionsBecause I have witnessed the powerful effect of using visual

explanations for enhancing student learning, I am continuously“hunting and gathering” and developing visual explanations forthe courses I teach. I have also begun experimenting with askingmy students to become producers, as well as consumers, ofvisual explanations. My thought is since it takes a much betterunderstanding of the subject matter to produce a visualexplanation than to just consume one, having my students striveto produce visual explanations should result in their learning thesubject matter at an even deeper level (or perhaps betterexpressed as at a higher cognition level). Creating visualexplanation has been a very rewarding process for me—I have abetter grasp of the fundamental principles and detailed featuresof the topics I teach and I now have a reliably tool, at mydisposal, to readily enhance the learning of my students. Thus, Iwould like to encourage others to not only use visualexplanations in their teaching, but to develop visualexplanations specific to their subject matter and share themwith others.

AcknowledgmentsA good deal of my thinking about using and developing

visual explanations was shaped by Dr. James Zull, through hisbook The Art of Changing the Brain (2002) and Edward Tufte,through his outstanding workshop (Tufte 2004) and books (Tufte1990, 1997, 2001, and 2006). I am thankful for the support andcreative contributions of all my former and current FSHN 101teaching assistants, especially Dr. James Javenkoski, who wasinstrumental in helping me establish the FSHN course website.The author would like to acknowledge the following Univ. ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ill., U.S.A.) organizations forproviding funding or in-kind support for development ofnumerous visual explanations now being used at Illinois andelsewhere for enhancing student learning: the Dept. of FoodScience and Human Nutrition, the College of ACES Office ofAcademic Programs, the Educational Technology Board (ETB),the Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement (PITA)sponsored by the Teaching Advancement Board (TAB), theVisualization, Media, and Imaging Lab., Beckman Inst. forAdvanced Science and Technology, and the AdvancedAnimation Class in the Digital Media Program in the ComputerScience and Information Technology Dept. at Parkland College,

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Champaign, Ill., U.S.A. The amazing artwork and animationassistance of Chris Whitaker, Jeff Griffin, Alex Jerez, SteveEisenman, Ben Grosser, and Janet Sinn-Hanlon is gratefullyacknowledged. The full-time support of my family (Art, Robbie,Annie, and Shadow Schmidt) is also gratefully acknowledged.

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LLC. 263 p.

Supporting InformationThe following supporting information is available for this

article.

QuickTime Movie S1: “Relationship Between Fatty AcidStructure and Physical State”QuickTime Movie S2: “Nature and Use of Emulsifiers in Foods”QuickTime Movie S3: “Browning Reactions in Foods”PowerPoint Presentation S1: Examples of some of the visualexplanations developed for use in FSHN 101 Introduction toFood Science and Human Nutrition, discussed in Table 1.

Please note: Wiley-Blackwell is not responsible for thecontent or functionality of any supporting materials supplied bythe authors. Any queries (other than missing material) should bedirected to the corresponding author for the article.

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