The combination of images, words and storytelling can be used to communicate just about anything. Exploring that notion, we spoke to cartoonists, authors and educators about how comics and graphic novels can be used to help readers learn and foster an enduring curiosity about science, technology and math.

Jim Ottaviani has been writing comics about scientists for over ten years. His well-researched books offer illuminating glimpses into the discoveries, lives and historical backgrounds of Neils Bohr, Marie Curie, Harry Harlow and others. Far from being the dry subject some textbooks would have you believe, Ottaviani’s biographies reveal how science relates to such diverse topics as war, language, magic and love.

Ottaviani, now a librarian at the University of Michigan, explains that he is not a scientist but that it is actually his background in nuclear engineering which predisposed him to see the usefulness in combining Science with comics. “It's the engineer in me that put the comics and science together because it works: comics are an effective means for communicating ideas. Look at any technical article, even in the most hardcore academic journal. Sure, you'll see math, but you'll also see words to frame the math, and you'll see pictures where words and math can't do the job alone.”

Working with a variety of accomplished artists, Ottaviani aims to “entertain people with stories that put a human face on the scientists and discoveries that shape our world.” While intended as supplements to classroom material rather than texts, each book contains a bibliography and recommended reading list for those curious to learn more.

“Thinking back to when I was in school, I don't have strong memories of any textbooks at all. Not a single one. However I do remember many of the books I read outside of class, or because a teacher recommended them. I still own a lot of them, and re-read them as well.” With the use of strong visual images and memorable stories, Ottaviani’s comics succeed in connecting readers to the value and real world applications of scientific principles.

“You never know what's going to interest someone or capture their imagination. So having accurate and enjoyable depictions of scientists and their work appear in all media that someone might encounter in a day -- and most of us get exposed to more than just TV, or just print, or just comics, each and every day -- can only help to generate interest. And the learning will follow, even if the thing that set someone down the path to finding out more isn't explicitly trying to teach them something.”

For more information about Jim Ottaviani, see www.gt-labs.com

Alex Simmons -- a teacher, comic book writer and organizer of the annual Kids’ Comic Con -- strongly believes in the potential for comic books to foster the curiosity and creative thinking that is truly at the heart of scientific understanding and discovery. He developed the “Sci-Tech Heroes” workshop in order to do just that.

Growing up, Simmons’s interest in reading books would wax and wane, “but I was always reading comics. And through them, I knew words like nuclei and atomic fusion. I knew about history from references in the comics.” The comics may not have explicitly taught history lessons or explained what atomic fusion was, but encountering these words when reading for entertainment planted seeds for recognition when they came up later in the classroom. The ubiquitous comic books of Simmons’s youth fired up the imaginations of their readers, making connections between scientific principles and the exciting lives of superheroes.

“When some of my friends went into their fields as adults, they were inspired partially through the fascination and curiosity that they developed from the comic books they read growing up.” It is this same fascination and curiosity that Simmons works to inspire in his workshops.

The premise for Sci-Tech Heroes is simple. “In the Marvel and DC Universes, there are about 500 characters whose powers and abilities are based, at least loosely, in science and technology.” Using the best known of these characters, Simmons will ask students how their powers work.

“In my initial approach we started with Iron Man. Incidentally, this was right around the time of the movie, but coincidentally he was also a perfect character to start with. So we took Iron Man, and I said ‘how does Iron Man fly?’” Eventually students hit on the vague answer “fire comes out of his boots.” The plausibility of this is explored. Wouldn’t that burn his feet? How would that help him fly?

“The point of this part is to get them to start thinking about the terminology. It is used in the comics, but most kids will look at it and say ‘cool’ and that’s where their minds stop. What I try to do with these workshops is to pick up from there and start thinking about why he could plausibly fly.” When the students’ eyes light up and they yell out “rockets!”- that’s when they start making connections between what they are learning and what happens in the comics they read for fun.

The next phase of the workshop involves students creating their own superheroes and supervillains. Simmons gives the students a problem, usually a natural disaster of some kind. After a brief discussion of how hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis work, students are presented with the challenge of creating a comic book character: either a villain who causes the natural disaster or a hero who is equipped to save people from it and possibly even stop it.

“We’ll start by sketching the characters. What kind of outfit is your character going to have? Why? How does it function? Nothing can be done by waving a magic wand, so you have to have an understanding of what scientific principles you’re basing it on.”

The adventures in many comic books are not created in a vacuum. Many are inspired by an understanding of scientific principles, historical events, classic mythology and much more. Part of the goal of Simmons’s comics workshops is to help students understand this and see that the more they learn, the more they will be equipped to create their own fantastic adventures.

To learn more about Alex Simmons, visit www.simmonshereandnow.com.

Gene Luen Yang is best known for his phenomenally well-received graphic novel American Born Chinese and the more recent Eternal Smile, a collaboration with artist Derek Kirk Kim. But apart from being an award-winning cartoonist, Yang is also a high school teacher and advocate for the use of comics in education.

Yang discovered first-hand the educational benefits of comics when teaching math. “Several years ago, because of my other duties on campus, I could not be with my Algebra 2 class during key lessons.  To compensate, I drew the lessons out as comics and asked my sub to pass them out.  They were a hit.  Many of my students asked me to draw lessons out as comics even when I wasn't absent.  I was so intrigued by the experience, and by the educational potential of comics, that I ended up doing my Master's final project on it.”

That project resulted in the comic strip “Factoring with Mr. Yang and Mosely”, a friendly tutorial that visually walks students through this often difficult concept. To do this, Yang makes use of comics’ ability to “communicate time-bound material in a timeless way. Because comics are visual and static, past, present and future sit on a page next to each other. This gives the reader control over the rate, and even sequence, of information flow.” The comic is structured in such a way that students are encouraged to read both backwards and forwards, returning to earlier concepts for review and moving on to more challenging examples once those concepts have been mastered.

Not only is this structure ideal for teaching across a range of students’ individual paces, it is also well suited to mathematics. “Much of math,” explains Yang, “especially high school math, is sequential. Often, teaching math is teaching the steps of an algorithm while promoting a deeper understanding of why that algorithm works. Because the comics medium is both sequential and visual by nature, it's tailor-made for this. The algorithmic information is easily formatted to comics, and the visuals can promote that deeper understanding educators are looking for.”

To learn more about Gene Luen Yang (and brush up on your factoring skills) visit www.humblecomics.com/factoring/.