CREATIVE DESIGN IN VISUAL COMMUNICATION FOR VOCATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION

Art History provides many examples to inspire students in presenting interpretations of quantified data. Throughout the centuries, scientists have used graphics and spatial modals to tell complex stories to their patrons, colleagues, and decision makers. Visual learners especially, can see how an interesting narrative can unfold from numbers in a statistical model. The spatial relationships found in the Geo-sciences lend themselves well to a visually aesthetic, when transformed to color and 2 dimensional formats.

The Urban Assembly Harbor School’s mission is to engage inner city at risk students to the working maritime community of the port of New York and New Jersey harbor. Preparing for careers, and vocational education requires understanding of science, technology and mathematics (STEM) in building useful skill sets. We will, share examples of visual, auditory and kin-esthetic (VAK) strategies incorporated into lesson plans to help 9^th grade students transition from middle school academics to commencement (high school) requirements for New York State. Incoming academic competencies of students range widely, from deeply below grade level to above average. To differentiate strategies for such diverse student population, we find it useful to utilize VAK and other approaches.