While students often grow up drawing for pleasure, by the time they start school many will claim, “I am not good at drawing”. Such a lack of confidence is reinforced when students are directed to draw in science without instruction in the practice of drawing scientifically. Interpreting and creating multimodal representations are now recognised as key to scientific thinking, reasoning, and learning. Although drawings are a commonly used representation in science, the skill of scientific drawing is rarely taught, especially in the early school years. Intentional teaching helps students learn how to produce quality scientific drawings.

The purpose and characteristics of drawing in science

Drawing as a form of communication can be used to aid students in showing observations (perceptual), demonstrating thinking (conceptual), or recording investigation equipment, procedures, or results (procedural), as shown in Figure 1. The characteristics of a drawing depend on the purpose. For example, in biology, scientific illustrators aim to produce a realistic image that closely resembles the object being viewed. In physics, mechanical drawings use precise lines and symbols to convey the size, shape, and relationship of parts to exact specifications.

In general, scientific drawings:

• use clear and simple lines.
• show details of distinctive features, parts, and proportions.
• have limited shading.
• often include labels.

Types of drawings

In classrooms, students can overlap their styles of drawing. It is useful to identify the purpose of a drawing for the students to allow them to focus their attention on the specific skills or concepts being developed.

A conceptual drawing is an external representation of the student's (internal) thoughts or ideas. It combines their prior experiences, knowledge, and contextual cues in a creative drawing that conveys their thinking.

A perceptual drawing requires keen observation to draw what the student sees in the present, i.e. not from past knowledge. Cognitively, the student rejects the existing ‘pictures in their head’ (schemas or preconceptions) in favour of realism. Students may need to be reminded to include the details of specific features to create a recognisable drawing of the subject.

A procedural drawing provides the equipment and step-by-step instructions for doing an investigation.

Figure 1 — Scientific drawings

a. perceptual (showing observations)	b. conceptual (demonstrating thinking)	c. procedural (recording procedures)

Draw Like a Scientist is a perceptual drawing strategy that guides students to draw what they see. A focus on including accurate details helps students observe more closely as they consider which aspects are salient to a scientific drawing.

In the video below, Associate Professor Christine Preston uses the Draw Like a Scientist strategy with a kindergarten class. She encourages students to identify how her initial drawing of a plant does not look like the photograph of the plant. With the students’ help, Associate Professor Preston models how a scientist creates a perceptual drawing.

Figure 2 — Draw Like a Scientist strategy (reproduced with the permission of Associate Professor Christine Preston)

After the demonstration, the students were shown a photograph of a different plant (a sunflower seedling germinated in class) and asked to ‘draw this plant like a scientist’. Their illustrations (with a label added as a second step) are shown in Figure 3. Colouring is not required in scientific drawings, but in this class, the students were quick to grab their pencils!

Figure 3 — Seedling photograph and example drawings by kindergarten students

Following Draw Like a Scientist interventions such as this, students’ observations have included: adding seed leaf(s) (cotyledons), enhanced scale (relative) and perspective, position of elements, closer shape, and size of leaves, and sometimes detail such as vein lines.

Tips on scientific drawing for older students

The Draw Like a Scientist strategy can be adapted for older students by providing further guidance on the conventions of scientific drawings:

• Conventionally, a plain line (no arrows) is used to connect the label to the feature in scientific drawings. Arrows (typically included by students, see Figure 4) should be discouraged because they have specific meanings in science (direction, force).
• Encourage students to measure the object (height, width, thickness of parts such as stems) to help portray more accurate dimensions.
• Counting parts such as rootlets, leaves, or leaflets and the orientation of parts from the midline of the object allows students to approach their drawings in a systematic manner.

Once the students have completed an initial drawing on their own, ask them to critique their representation using probing questions such as:

• What does your drawing show, and what doesn’t it show?
• How close does your drawing resemble the subject?
• Can you improve your drawing to show important aspects such as the size, shape, parts, and proportions?

Encouraging students to elaborate, modify, or redo their drawings supports meaning-making by highlighting thinking and conscious decisions about what to and what not to draw.

Discuss with your colleagues

Identify places in your teaching program where students draw in science and discuss:

• the purpose of the drawing and how it is conveyed to students.
• identify the salient points of a quality drawing for this purpose.
• the advantages and disadvantages of using a Draw Like a Scientist approach in your classroom.

References

Ainsworth, S., Prain, V., & Tytler, R. (2011). Drawing to learn in science. Science, 333(6046), 1096-1097.

Checkovich, B. H., & Sterling, D. R. (2001, January). Oh say can you see. A simple strategy for improving student’s observation skills. Science and Children, 38(4), 32–35.

Dotger, S., & Walsh, D. (2015). Elementary art & science: observational drawing in lesson study. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 4(1), 26–38.

Preston, C. (2016). Try this: Draw like a scientist. Teaching Science, 62(4), p. 4-8.

Preston, C. M., Way, J. A., & Ginns, P. (2025). Developing young children’s perceptual observations and representations: draw like a scientist. International Journal of Science Education, 1-28.

Tytler, R., Prain, V., Aranda, G., Ferguson, J., & Gorur, R. (2020). Drawing to reason and learn in science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 57(2), 209-231.

Additional resources

Scientific illustrations — Botanic Gardens of Sydney <https://www.botanicgardens.org.au/discover-and-learn/horticulture-and-history/scientific-illustrations>