Challenge A: Comics

isaacclements

Challenge A: Comics

September 17, 2025

Isaac Clements

This comic is being created as an extension to my light and sound unit that I created for grade 1 students. I chose the topic because of my interest in science and the excitement of being able to help students learn about light and sound through short yet detailed information. My goals for the project are to create a comic that is clear and concise that students can read with their parents as a form of review of the light and sound unit prior to an interview style evaluation. My hope is that students will engage with the comic in a way that develops a fascination for light and sound and science as a whole, with the overall goal of creating lifelong learners.  

Understand 

Describe the challenge 

The purpose of the comic is to teach elementary students about the properties of light and sound, the difference between natural and artificial sources and where they can be found in their environment. 

Context and audience

The focus audience for this comic will be for students in grades 1-3, as they are beginning to explore the ideas and concepts of light and sound. In extreme cases, this comic could be used in a middle school or high school science classroom to teach the basic facts about light and sound before delving into more complex topics. For younger learners their needs are to be able to understand difficult topics through easy to follow visuals and relatable characters that align with the BC elementary curriculum. The goals of the comic are to understand concepts related to light and sound and to connect their findings to simple concepts or ideas that they have unknowingly observed in their lives, as well as begin to develop scientific vocabulary. The motivation for the comic comes from younger students’ love for stories and colourful images along with their curiosity about the natural world. 

Demographic

Since this comic will primarily be used for students aged six to nine, representing a diverse cultural background, it is important to consider the language being used. In public and private schools at the primary age, many students are still developing in their reading fluency and comprehension; therefore, it is important to tailor the comic using clear language and descriptive images. As well, since the properties of light and sound are new to many students, using simple vocabulary is key and encouraging students to read it with their families as a support system. 

Psychographic/Behavioural

Primary elementary students tend to have short attention spans; therefore, this comic supports students who may struggle to concentrate for long periods of time. In elementary school I was reluctant to read, which caused me to fall behind my peers. The hope with the comic is that for those students who are reluctant to read they are hopefully more likely to find joy in the strong visual element. Elementary students enjoy stories with characters they can relate to or find amusing, which makes a comic format ideal.  

POV statement

Elementary students at the primary age need to learn about the properties of light and sound through age appropriate language and graphics in order to make connections to their real life environment and develop a lasting passion for science. 

Learning objectives (taken from the BC elementary grade 1 curriculum) 

  • Natural and artificial sources of light and sound (sources) 
  • Properties of light and sound depend on their source and the objects with which they interact
    • Examples: brightness, colour
    • Interactions of light with different objects create images and shadows
    • Light interactions can make plants grow, make shadows, or cause sunburn, depending on the source and location (seasons depend on light from the sun and how spread out the sun’s rays are)
    • Examples: pitch, tone, volume

Sub learning objectives

  • Develop reading comprehension and proficiency
  • Begin to understand key scientific vocabulary
  • Encourages a discussion of science with family members
  • Promotes a love for science

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Plan (Ideate, Sketch, Elaborate)

Ideation

I wanted to connect my comic to myself as an elementary teacher and how I could make a resource that would help me in my future classroom. I thought back to the different units that I taught and instantly I wanted to do something related to science that would serve as a final review for a unit. As media, I looked through the BC grades 1, 2 and 3 curriculums and my previous unit plans that I had made. Through interest and applicability to real world concepts I made the difficult decision to focus my comic on the concept of light and sound instead of matter. 

Promising prototype

My most promising prototypes were “Matter Matters”, which looks at two characters (Rick and Joe) learning about the different states of matter. My other most promising prototype and the one I decided to use is “Light and Sound Adventure” which is a story of Lisa and Larry as they look to learn about the complex world of light and sound. 

Storyboard

I hand-drew my images from a script that I made, which follows the sequencing of my light and sound unit plan. I am not a great artist, so my pictures are not the best, but I plan to use Canva to create my final comic so it is more visually appealing. 

Principles applied

The principles applied were Dual Coding Theory, Active Processing, segmenting, contiguity principle, germane load and storyboard planning.

  • Dual coding theory: Since our brains are broken into two parts, one for pictures and words, the comic uses both at the same time to help students learn better. 
  • Active processing: How the comic is broken up into panels will hopefully make it easier for students to think about the information, sort it and connect to prior learning. 
  • Segmenting: Ideas are broken down into smaller parts; therefore, a student can review each panel to gain an understanding before moving to the next one. 
  • Contiguity principle: Related pictures and words are kept together to make it easier for the reader and give context clues. 
  • Germane load: Since the information is repeated from the unit, it should hopefully be just the right effort to help students remember the content long term.  
  • Storyboard/planning: By creating a rough version of the comic and making a map of what it should look like, it ensured that the message of the comic was clear.

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Peer Feedback

For the first reflection, one of my peers mentioned that they liked my connection to personal experience as a teacher instructing about light and sound. For the Understand section of my project, they mentioned a strong audience, demographic and POV statement; however, the formatting could be changed for my learning objectives in order to make them easier to read and follow. The same comment was made for principles applied, with the suggestion of bolding each principle. For the final submission it was suggested that I put my comic good copy underneath my prototype since the prototype was supposed to be a smaller, distinct part of Challenge A. Overall, my peer stated that the concept was easy to grasp, but suggested I use Canva for a better presentation and add in references at the end of my project.  

For my second peer reflection, my groupmate stated that I created a clear goal of educating primary students about light and sound in a fun and accessible way. They recognized my response to my audience regarding students’ short attention spans, developing reading skills and curiosity about the natural world. They liked the connection to the BC curriculum, making it useful in a real classroom setting. Lastly, my peer appreciated the visual component for younger learners and the connection to Mayer’s cognitive theory. They also mentioned that both they and their colleague would be quick to incorporate the prototype into their classrooms.    

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Reflect and Refine

What worked well?

In completing the project, what worked well was my end vision. After gaining a clear idea of the expectations and goals of the assignment I knew I wanted to connect it to me as a teacher. Knowing I wanted to use it as a classroom resource gave me a clear focus and made it easy to make connections to my past experiences. Because of this clear vision, I was able to design a detailed prototype that accurately taught about the attributes of light and sound in a fun and engaging way. 

What would you change?

In the future, I would like to try creating variations of the comic with simplified language to see if the message of the story is lost or if it still works. There is a wide range of reading abilities in schools; therefore, having different versions of the comic would allow students of differing reading levels to all participate and further their learning about the same topic. I would also like to see if I could change the comic to fit older grade levels. Although I teach elementary and middle school I could see myself teaching high school in the future; therefore, adapting a comic to fit older grades would be interesting.

What revisions you included in your revised prototype.

Based on my peers’ comments, I changed the formatting of the learning objectives and principles applied by using bold bullet points and underlining the key takeaways to improve clarity and make it easier to follow. As well, I used the storytelling readings from last week and incorporated them into the principles applied. Lastly, for my final submission of the comic I changed from hand drawn images to using Canva to create the graphics. I used Canva AI to design three of my four characters (Lisa, Larry and Mr. Light). I used the following prompts for the characters: 

Lisa: Brown wavy shoulder length hair, brown eyes, darker complexion, glasses, red t-shirt, blue pants 

Larry: Brown spiky hair, blue eyes, pale skin, green t-shirt, blue pants 

Mr. Light: Yellow light bulb, white eyes, black arms and legs

What issues were raised and how did you address them? 

An issue that arose was the difficulty of the language used in my comic. Although I think the comic accurately teaches the concepts of light and sound to primary students, the vocabulary used may be too difficult for most students to read on their own. To address this, I suggested that students read the comic with their parents. I attempted to simplify the language, but doing so forced me to remove important information. It also led to a longer comic, with more panels needed to explain the concepts in simpler terms. 

Strengths and limitations to this type of multimedia learning. Connect your responses to the academic literature.  

Strengths of the comic are that they use visual and verbal cues, encouraging the Dual coding theory (uses words and pictures at the same time to help students learn better), Active processing (information is broken up making it easier for students to think about the information, sort it and connect to prior learning) and segmenting (ideas are broken into smaller parts). Another strength is that it is engaging for younger students and the use of pictures helps give context clues to students who may struggle to read. Lastly, from storytelling reading; storytelling is used as a powerful educational tool. Since they include sensory rich details, listening to stories is more engaging and easier to remember. Using techniques like storyboarding helps map out the story and clarifies the goal and message within.  

Limitations include: without the help from the teacher and parents, younger students may only look at the comic as a story rather than the intended concepts about science. With technology being so prominent in schools and children’s daily lives some students may become disengaged with the length of a four page comic since there is little manipulation other than turning the page.  

Final Version of the Comic

As stated above: I used Canva AI to design three of my four characters (Lisa, Larry and Mr. Light). I used the following prompts for the characters: 

Lisa: Brown, wavy, shoulder length hair, brown eyes, darker complexion, glasses, red t-shirt, blue pants 

Larry: Brown spiky hair, blue eyes, pale skin, green t-shirt, blue pants 

Mr. Light: Yellow light bulb, white eyes, arms and legs

References 

Granchelli, A. (2025b). Text and image: The sum is greater than its parts. EDCI 337. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/11/text-and-image-the-sum-is-greater-than-its-parts/  

Apostolou, Dimitris, and Linardatos, Gerasimos. MDPI. (2023). https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/18/10237/scifeed_display  

Granchelli, A. (2025). Storytelling. EDCI 337. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/14/storytelling/  

CANVA: Visual suite for everyone. (n.d.-a). https://www.canva.com/  

Template ideas – CANVA. (n.d.). https://www.canva.com/ideas/  

Fyfield, Matt. “Cognitive Load Theory 3 – Intrinsic, Extraneous, Germane.” YouTube, YouTube, 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkH0EGYqWO0.