Date of Defense

4-18-2019

Date of Graduation

4-2019

Department

Art

First Advisor

Ryan Lewis

Second Advisor

Nick Kuder

Abstract

Hello, my name is Olivia Bevacqua and my thesis is on the benefits of doodling. Doodling is something that’s really important to me as an artist and a human. I doodled growing up at lot, especially in high school. It’s something that I often do when I’m bored or when I need something to ground myself during lectures.

Growing up and into adulthood, doodling is seen as a frivolous act. Multiple studies have proven that doodling can be beneficial in many ways including relaxation, focus, and information retention. For these reasons among others, discouraging doodling during development and into adulthood is something that should be addressed.

So the question is, how can I, as one person, in one semester create something that encourages doodling in a classroom setting and gets rid of some of the unease or bias that is sometimes associated with it?

Now who is my audience exactly? From the beginning I knew I wanted to focus on k-12 and not higher education because in general students in higher education are adults, therefore professors and classmates care less if they’re doodling in lecture.

There are a couple audiences in k-12 education, the teachers and the students. For a majority of the semester I actually focused on the teachers as my primary audience. My goal was to change their mind and suggest to them ways that they could implement doodling into their lesson plans. I interviewed many people in and around teaching and the k-12 education field. I talked to them about mark making and doodling, what they noticed about students, how they reacted to students doodling, and so on.

When it came down to it though, I figured the best way that I could make the most impact was by directly reaching the students themselves. The k-12 education system and lesson planning was something a little too far out of my element. In addition, I had been a high school student not too long ago so I knew I would be able to relate to this audience better.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Additional Files
Bevacqua_thesis.mp4 (144356 kB)
Bevacqua Video
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