Toon in!

“Called Scientoons,the concept has found audience in Philadelphia,Bangkok,Stockholm and back home among other places,” Srivastava says the experiment began way back in 1988 and was triggered by the lukewarm response speakers receive at scientific seminars.

“In this form of teaching all one needs is a clear understanding of the subject,a creative mind and the ability to sketch. But if all cannot be done by one lecturer then the project can be divided. It consumes time but has 50 per cent better reception and recall value over the conventional text method,” Srivastava tells us Sceintoons not only make you smile and laugh but also provide information about new researches,subjects and concepts in a simple,understandable and interesting way.

Srivastava tells us Scientoons has been included as a subject in the syllabus of M.Sc in Lucknow University,Devi Ahilya Bai University Makhan Lal Chaturevdi University and Anna University and in B.Ed course of Mohan Lal Sukhadia University. “While World Health Organization has appreciated AIDS education and awareness to children through Scientoons and United Nations Environment Programme has published report entitled ‘Scientoons: Cartoons for Environmental Cause’ in its Asia-Pacific News Letter,many other countries are also planning to introduce scientoons for science education and science communication,” Srivastava tells us,he’s also authored a book ‘Scientoonic Tell-Tale of Genome and DNA’.