Experts‵ Perception on the Usage of Mathematical Representations in Biology Comics

Abstract

Integrating biology and mathematics can potentially solve problems associated with students' inability to solve quantitative biology problems. To face this issue, we embarked on a project to develop biological and mathematical content-based comics for elementary school students. It would assist them in gaining early comfort with transdisciplinary work. However, we need experts’ perceptions to see if our comics are feasible. This exploratory interview research attempted to understand how experts perceive mathematical representation in biology comics. The three experts involved in the interview were a biology teacher, a mathematics lecturer, and a comics enthusiast. This study's empirical data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The research uncovered three major themes: 1) comic content, 2) graph type, and 3) graph modification. Experts have a positive opinion of our comics. We highlight the experts’ feedback for some revision, such as adding additional information, expanding the storyline, and modifying the graph through Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach.