# MCB 291 Graphical Abstract Workshop
###### tags: `emily`

## Course
MCB 291: Genetics, Genomics, and Evolutionary Biology
Instructors: Craig Hunter, Jim Mallet, Alexa Perez-Torres (TF)

## Event
Location: Learning Lab Main Studio
Time: Wednesday, February 1, 11 AM-12:15 PM
Number of students: 17

## Purpose
The purpose of this workshop is to help students think about how to extract important information from scientific literature and express it visually in the form of a graphical abstract. Students will also be introduced to and have the opportunity to practice with two tools commonly used to generate graphical abstracts digitally: Adobe Illustrator and BioRender.

## Room and Tech Layout
* art supplies at two tables (for the two stations students will split into for tool time)
* copies of the [Mendel 1866](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yyMEw3b9dV4O37XaPlSFKXf4xX5in6T0/view?usp=sharing)
* overhead camera at main bench for students to display work and for instructors to work through the paper

## Outline of Workshop
* Emily walks students through exercise of finding important points from paper to include in graphical abstract and brainstorming how to create visuals to convey those ideas (10 min)
* Big points to cover:
* MCO curriculum allows you to practice a couple forms of visual communication: PowerPoint presentations, chalk talks. Wwhat makes the graphical abstract different is that it has to be able to be understood on its own without you being there to explain what it means
* Graphical abstract is different from other schematics they might make for a written paper because it has to encapsulate much more information- essentially the main ideas of an entire paper
* Why is it useful to make graphical abstracts in this class?
* It's required by many journals now- likely to come up in future academic/professional career
* It requires a really thorough understanding and ability to extract the key points of the primary literature it accompanies (I think even more so than when writting a written summary of a paper)
* For a graphical abstract, we also want to follow good practices for visual communication
* sparing use of text
* thoughtful use of color
* don't do to much! clean, clear illustration of just a few main points- avoid unnecessary and distracting elements
* have a clear starting and ending point (top-bottom or left-right)
* make it clear the biological context of what we're looking at in the graphics- are we in a cell? in a tissue?
* Show an example? Herre et al. 2022 (Cell)
* 
* Students use paper and art supplies to generate their own graphical abstracts for Mendel 1866, a paper they've already read and discussed for class (10 min)
* A couple of students share what they have made (5 min)
* Students split into two groups to practice with Illustrator and BioRender
* Illustrator with Christine and Emily (15 min)
* Generate one of the graphics that would be included in the abstract from scratch
* Emily walks through one way to make a wrinkled pea
* Steps:
* Use pen tool (P) to draw object (remember to hold and drag to create curves
* Adjust the object shape using the direct selection tool (A)
* Use selection tool (V) to select the object
* Add a color fill to the shape, remove the stroke
* Use the mesh tool (U) to break up the shape into grids and columns (might be where gradient tool is on default settings): mesh object is multicolored object on which colors can flow in different directions and transition smoothly from one point to another
* Go to Window>Color Guide
* Select points in the mesh using the mesh tool and add darker colors using the color guide
* Move around points the mesh to create the appearance of grooves in the object
* Go to Window>Stylize>Drop Shadow
* Add drop shadow, offset in x a bit
* BioRender with Alexa (15 min)
* Make a digital version of the drawing they made in the first activity
* Students reflect on experience (5 min)
* Share [link](https://hackmd.io/@mdf-22-23/r1E12Pjjj) to resource page for different software options

## Reflections
This workshop successfully gave students the chance to discuss and practice applying some simple graphical design strategies towards creating graphical abstracts. Students participated in the conversation about features of graphical abstracts that make them more or less successful at conveying the big ideas of a paper. They also were creative and thoughtful when creating paper versions of abstracts for the Mendel paper. Demonstrations of the digital tools provided a very brief taste of the different ways students might actually create abstracts for the course.

## Media