MCB Neuroscience Media & Design Fellow - Xiaomeng Han

Projects

Xiaomeng worked on a number of exciting projects in support of Mollecular & Cellular Biology courses and departmental priorities. Xiaomeng is also an active member of a multi-disciplinary and intergenerational cluster of graduate and undergraduate fellows working on projects that use 2D and 3D illustration tools. Xiaomeng's projects incldued:

Comics for MCB 80: Neurobiology of Behavior
To explain a difficult concept that students are often confused about, Xiaomeng developed a two-page comics spread that uses a real-life example to illustrate and explain this concept. Through this project, Xiaomeng has learned some of the basic concepts that inform comics as a form, as well as the actual skills to make comics with an current industry standard software (Clip Studio Paint). Xiaomeng is also developing a workshop to teach fellow MDFs and undergraduate students how to use Clip Studio Paint.

Reading Scientific Papers
Supporting Professors Jeff Lichtman and Katie Quast, Xiaomeng has been developing an interview series that will be compiled into a video about the process of reading scientific papers. This project involves interviewing professors, PIs, post-docs, and students about their reading practices, asking them to reflect on how they read scientific research for comprehension. The goal of this project is to share these videos with students to help them learn how to read the academic research papers assigned in the course. Xiaomeng has completed and edited these interviews, recording in one of the Learning Lab's several studios.

Graphical Abstracts in MCB 80: Neurobiology of Behavior
In MCB80: Neurobiology of Behavior, students are encountering scientific papers for the first time. The course introduces students to several seminal research papers in neuroscience, which Xiaomeng is adapting into graphical abstracts. These graphical abstracts illustrate for students how original research in neuroscience was conducted, helping them gain a better understanding of important findings and processes.

Xiaomeng has also completed a t-shirt design for MCB80 and is working on a comic about action potential propagation for MCB80.

In support of the graphical abstracts project, Xiaomeng has developed a tutorial in Adobe ProCreate, a tool that can be used in illustration/graphic design projects. Xiaomeng will continue to refine this tutorial so that future MCB MDFs and TFs can share these materials with students enrolled in the course. Below, you can see some illustrations that graduate and undergraduate fellows at the the Learning Lab created by following Xiaomeng's tutorial. By developing this workshop at the Learning Lab, and testing it with other fellows, Xiaomeng can now refine the tutorial so that it's optimally effective for students.