Course Overview
This page focuses on Making Science and Engineering Pictures: A Practical Guide to Presenting Your Work as it was taught by Felice Frankel.
In this course, which was offered as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), students learned the basics of photography and gained an intriguing new perspective into the visual world. The curriculum emphasized photographing science and engineering phenomena, but most of the material also applied to other kinds of macro photography. The course’s video tutorials were accompanied by assignments in which students used a camera, a flatbed scanner, and mobile devices. Interviews with notable image makers and art directors were also incorporated into the curriculum. Students discovered how subtle changes in lighting, composition, and background contribute to creating more effective images.
Course Outcomes
Course Goals for Students
- Learn to photograph your work with new perspectives
- Develop methods and techniques that improve the quality of your images
- Build critical thinking skills
- Increase proficiency with a range of image making devices (scanners, cameras, smartphones, video)
- Discover how compelling images reinforce and augment grant and journal submissions
- Learn to evaluate what makes an effective image
- Learn how to think graphically and how to present your photographs for journal figures, covers, and grant submissions.
Instructor Interview
"The process of making pictures is an act of discovery."
Below, Felice Frankel describes various aspects of how she taught Making Science and Engineering Pictures: A Practical Guide to Presenting Your Work.
- Coming Full Circle Back to Science
- Nothing Better than a Picture
- Providing Meaningful Feedback in a MOOC
- Collaborating as a Teaching Team
Curriculum Information
Prerequisites
This was an introductory level course. While previous experience with a camera was helpful, it was not essential.
Requirements Satisfied
None
Offered
MITx offers a free version of this subject on edX. Please register to get started:
0.111x Making Science and Engineering Pictures: A Practical Guide to Presenting Your Work (archived)
Student Information
Enrollment
About 12,000 students
Typical Student Background
Although the intended audience for this massive online course was the science and engineering research community, many of its active participants were artists and retired educators.
Assessment
Grade Breakdown
Student learning was assessed based on the completion of weekly assignments. A commenting guide accompanied each assignment.
Week 1: Flatbed Scanner
- Select an object or device and create scanned images of your object or device with an awareness of your settings and choices; comment on your images.
Week 2: Camera Basics
- Take four images of your object or device, setting up your camera at a 45-degree angle, and make four images at the following aperture settings: f/4, f/8, f/22, f/32; once you’ve taken your four images, remove the camera from the tripod and take one more photo of your device at f/22; comment on your images.
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Week 3: Light
- Find an image of a small object, scan or clip the image; use drawing tools to indicate where in the image you think the light sources are positioned; take an image of your object in daylight and then add a secondary light source; comment on your images.
Week 4: Mobile Devices and Video
- Use your smartphone camera to take photos of small, interesting, and beautiful objects, including the object you selected for the course; select the best two and comment on them; pick one of the two images and use your photo editing software to zoom in on one of the images and crop to create a new image; comment on your image; create a micro-story video that represents an event or process; describe your video’s strengths and weaknesses in light of the still photography concepts in the course.
Week 5: Presenting Your Work
- Find an existing informational figure that includes a photo. Critique the figure and the image; using one of the images you’ve taken in the course, create one informational figure for a technical audience and one for a lay audience; comment on your work.
Instructor Insights on Assessment
Read Felice Frankel’s insights about using VoiceThread and rubrics to provide students with feedback on their work.
Course Team Roles
Lead Instructor
- Created and supervised teaching team for course
- Designed curriculum and curated materials
- Created course videos
- Created assignment comment guides (rubrics) to assess student learning
- Assessed student learning using assignment comment guides
Teaching Assistants
- Assessed student learning using assignment comment guides
- Responded to students’ comments and questions
- Curated materials for the course
Community Teaching Assistants
- Provided feedback to other learners
Software Engineer
- Facilitated the online delivery of content
