Explaining Scientific Diagrams

Explaining Scientific Diagrams

Introduction
Scientific diagrams contain different Elements. These include, Purpose, Audience, Visuals, Symbols and Words/Labels.Diagrams explain something of the reader's choice.


Purpose
The purpose of a diagram is to show people what something is or how to plant it as it shows in the examples above. The purpose of this is to show how something works in words that your audience can understand, showing how something works or what it is. This can be very useful to understand something and what qualities it has. For example, If you were showing how to plant an apple tree, one of it’s qualities would be that the bark of an apple tree root can be used for fevers and diseases.


Audience
The Audience is an important part of a diagram. This is because based on the age of your audience your diagram might be easier to read. If you have an audience aged 4-6 you would make your diagram easy to read and you wouldn’t put scientific words in your diagram, for example in text one they chose to use words like sun and water. If you were creating a diagram for older people, around ages 14- 15, you would make your diagram harder to understand and with more scientific words in it, like H2o instead of water. Your audience needs to be able to read your diagram easily.


Visuals
The Visuals in your diagram can be important because if your audience is younger kids, visuals can help them understand what you are trying to explain. If your diagram is for people that can understand more scientific information you might not put any visuals in because you know that they can understand what you are trying to explain. Colours can be important for younger readers because is will be more appealing to them, and will make them want to read it because it will look more exciting.


Symbols
Symbols can be arrows that show movement, for example, in text one the arrows are showing how the water and minerals are helping the plant not only survive but grow. Symbols can be very important for young readers to help them understand, in this case how plants grow. They help to explain what plants need and how to care for them.
 


Words/Labels
Scientific words can be hard to understand because usually they are long words examples of this are: Structural, Back fill, Biodegradable,
Undisturbed and stabilize. You would not use these words in diagrams for younger kids, but for older children you might use words like this.
If kids don’t understand the words that are in the diagram they will not want to read it.


Conclusion
A scientific diagram informs the reader about something that they have chosen to look at. A diagram is different depending on the audience that it is created for.