Ada's Adventures in Science

Cardiff, United Kingdom + 13 more

This is the story of Ada, a school girl who dreams of doing exciting science and making discoveries just like her scientific heroes.

Ada’s Adventures in Science follow the life of a curious girl called Ada. These comic book stories explore being a scientist and doing science; asking questions, taking measurements, refining theory based on observations, & working together. It aims to empower readers, so they can achieve anything, no matter who they are or what the background is - they just need to start by asking questions.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2018

Established

-

Children

14

Countries

Updated

April 2019

Our aim is for Ada to inspire kids and adults to believe in themselves and their abilities

About the innovation

About Ada's Adventures

Comic Books are an engaging and graphical way to introduce science topics to a diverse audience. As comic book geeks and as a scientist and artist partnership, we (Edward Gomez and Laura Sorvala) created 3 comic books, starting with “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”. We wanted not only to excite kids about science but to empower them to do science. We thought a believable, relatable character having exciting adventures was the way to do it.

The comic book series features Ada, a girl who isn’t afraid to ask questions about the world around her. Ada dreams of doing exciting science and making discoveries like her science heroes, while riding the school bus and playing with her friends. Finally Ada achieves her dream of becoming a professional scientist and taking part in a big discovery, through the course of the 3 comic books.

Inclusivity

As well as exciting kids about science, another major goal of the comic books are to empower them. We believe that anyone can do science; it doesn’t matter where you are from, who you are, what your gender, ethnicity, or background is; if you can ask questions, you can do science.

Why Comic Books?

Although the primary audience for these comic books is school students, they have a wide appeal to a general audience, including adults. Comic book art can be more dynamic and engaging than standard text and picture narratives, allowing us to draw a wide audience into the excitement of scientific discoveries.

Open Source

Because we believe in inclusivity and equity these comic books are available with a creative commons license allowing anyone to freely use and distribute them. We want Ada’s Adventures in Science to inspire as many people as possible to think differently about the world around them.

Sharing around the world

In early 2018 we ran a Kickstarter campaign to print and send comic books to schools around the world. We are very pleased that because of the success of this campaign and have sent over 15,000 comic books in English, German, Spanish and Welsh to schools in USA, UK, Colombia, Austria, Netherlands, South Africa, Zambia, Costa Rica, Uruguay, France, Spain and Nigeria.

Media

Implementation steps

Download the comics

Start by getting a copy of Ada's Adventures in Science in English, Spanish, German or Welsh. Then download the "Introducing Ada" presentation PDF.

What is science?

Start by introducing the students to Ada with the “Introducing Ada” presentation

Ask the students if they know any types of scientist

Ask them what a scientist does

The purpose of these steps are to:

Make students aware that science is diverse, not just chemistry and biology

Get students to think that the essential aspects of science are asking questions, looking for answers and working together

Role play

This part involves participation from the students. 5 volunteers will read for different characters in front of the class.

Ask for 5 volunteers to be the characters listed on the “Introducing Ada” presentation. Warn the students that it will involve reading in front of the rest of the class.Some characters are boys, some are girls, some are genderless. Encourage the students to play any role they want, regardless of the gender (or lack of gender).

Start reading through the comic book from the “Introducing Ada” presentation. If you do not have a projector, the students can read from the comics directly (between pages 11 - 15).

The action stops before the end of the story (on the slide which says “What happens next …?”). If you are using comic books instead of the - presentation, stop at the end of page 15.

What happened next?

In this final part of the activity the students will create their own ending for the story their classmates have just acted out.

Split the class into groups of 2-3

Give each group a “What Happened Next” comic template. They can decide if they want to draw a single picture or to divide up the page into comic strip panels.

Encourage the students to think about what has happened in the story and to think about using science in their ending.

Some students may not be confident at drawing. Encourage those students to be in charge of the direction their story takes. It is important that all students use their skills together and collaborate on the ending.

Presentation

Provide an opportunity for groups to present their endings to the class.

Congratulate all the students for creating unique endings to the story and reiterate that although their endings are different to the version that Ada and Theo experience, it does not make it any less valid.

Highlight any endings which are particularly inventive, artistic, or use interesting scientific ideas or vocabulary.