Teaching STEM topics with Manga comics

By Matt Ford (Ars Technica)| Published: October 14, 2008 - 07:45AM CT

We at the Ars Orbiting HQ often find our respective inboxes overflowing with press releases about any number of different topics. Usually, they are fairly tangential (if they're at all related) to what I tend to cover here at NI, but this one stuck out to me. O'Reilly, the perennial computer book publisher, and No Starch Press are importing and releasing a series of books that mix Manga comics with science and technology topics. The Manga Guides are planned to cover a wide range of fields from molecular biology to relativity.

The series of comic books will be drawn in the style of Japanese Manga characters and each book will focus on a single topic or field. The first book set to be available will be entitled The Manga Guide to Statistics.

A few sample pages were made available to the press. While it purports to give a thorough treatment of a first course in statistics, I wonder if some of the humor and subject matter will be lost on audiences on this side of the Pacific. The statistics book uses prices of Ramen noodle bowls from a mall that consists exclusively of noodle stands to illustrate the idea of classes, or bins, in statistics. Upcoming titles in the series include The Mange Guide to Databases, and The Manga Guide to Calculus, set to be published early next year.

Lest one think this is a case of pushing fluff over substance, the founder of No Starch Press, William Pollock, says that "reading manga about Statistics is like listening to a live lecture—a bit of an odd lecture, perhaps, but a compelling one. The learning comes naturally and effortlessly as readers progress through each story." Most of us at Nobel Intent have taught a wide variety of technical disciplines over our careers and understand that students each learn in different manners. Personally, I feel that if something can get through to anyone and helps them learn a topic that they would otherwise not care about, then it is a win.

Science and math don't have to be boring subjects, and fun treatments of them aren't required to be uninformative. Particle Adventure and Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics tackle highly technical subjects in a lighthearted but informative matter. I am going to see about getting my hands on a copy of this book and, if I am able, will report back with some impressions of how well this novel approach to teaching difficult subjects works.

Buzz up!