Scientific Drawing: Where science meets art

Book in for our facilitated school program Scientific Drawing: Where science meets art, where students will explore the world of scientific drawing and illustrations and their impact on the sciences, history and art.

Program overview

Scientific drawing was the primary method of recording visual data for scientists the world over until, and even past the development of the camera. These historical drawings remain useful to this day, communicating what past scientists have seen, and how they saw it.

In this program, students will engage with a variety of these drawings in a guided discussion around their accuracy and usefulness as a means of recording data. They will also have an opportunity to produce their own accurate drawings of museum objects and images from the wider Queensland Museum collection.

They will be challenged to produce accurate and realistic drawings, while considering what information they are attempting to communication. What needs to be captured, versus what can be left out? How will a reader interact with the image, and what will they take away?

Learning outcomes

• Understand that historical scientific sketches were the primary method of communicating accurate scientific information to the wider community before the invention of the camera.
• Examine and discuss the historical scientific drawings from within the museum collection.
• Analyse the same drawings and drawing conclusions on their accuracy and usefulness as scientific data.
• Create accurate sketches of museum specimens and objects using helpful resources and tools, while considering how to communicate important elements visually, and how these may be interpreted by a reader. 

School visit information

See our Visit as a school page for information on visiting the museum and booking a group into a program. Groups may be allocated time for self-guided Museum exploration during school program rotation.

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Learning Resources 

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