Several students rigorously take notes. Others lean forward and listen intently to the professor's lecture. Some choose to use class time to catch up on sleep. Many students, however, find themselves covering pages of their notebooks with words, characters and ornate patterns.
"In class, you just have your notebook and your imagination," second-year Engineering student Kyle LaBranche said.
But the root of doodling, students agree, usually stems from boredom.
"Doodling is usually a controlled process where you are aware of what you are doing, but it can drift into an automatic process where your attention is on something else but your hand keeps moving," Social Psychology Assoc. Professor Jon Haidt said.
In fact, sometimes, LaBranche says he tries to pay attention but instead finds himself drifting into the dreamy world of pictures and sketches.
"I have a very short attention span that has been with me since I was a kid, which usually leads to a lot of doodling," LaBranche said. "When I am really zoned out and I start to pay attention again, I will see stuff on my paper that I don't even remember drawing."
First-year College student Nicole Klett tends also to decorate her notebooks with doodles in addition to notes.
"I won't intend on doing it the entire class, but once I start, I tend to keep going," Klett said. "I won't realize how much time has gone by because I am so into what I am drawing."
Although Klett says she makes a conscious decision to doodle, LaBranche says that only the more ornate doodles require undivided attention.
CLASS="article--image" BORDER="0"> COURTESY KYLE LABRANCHE
[ CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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"Sometimes I will just walk into class and say 'I don't feel like paying attention today,'" LaBranche humbly admitted. "Those days, I will pretty much dedicate that entire class to drawing something more elaborate or to developing a character like George."
The character named George, LaBranche describes, is a gentle giant, but not the type of man one would want to irritate.
He tends to draw George repeatedly but with different facial expressions. Flipping through LaBranche's systems engineering notebook, George's birthplace, one sees a variety of George images ranging from happy or angry George to surprised-by-bad-news George.
"I used to draw other animated characters like Mickey Mouse or Goofy," LaBranche said. "Then I realized that I spend so much time doodling that I might as well try to develop a character of my own."
In addition to George, LaBranche draws paradise scenes that demonstrate Jimmy Buffet influences.
"I doodle places I would rather be than in class," LaBranche said.
Such destinations feature palm trees, the beach and a sun setting over placid waters. His drawings are quite ornate and involve different shades of gray created by smearing a pencil's graphite across the page.
LaBranche noted, however, that no one would want to shake his hand after he finishes one such drawing.
With such artistic inclinations, it naturally would follow that LaBranche has had some guidance. But, in fact, he has never taken an art course.
"Eveything I have learned to draw has been through taking boring" academic classes, LaBranche said.
In addition to doodling his signature beach scenes, LaBranche also fills his class-time drawing roller coasters and his family room at Christmastime. Song lyrics and different patterns also adorn pages of his notebook.
Klett, on the other hand, specializes in her patterns.
"I dance so I am really into lines and patterns and how they come together to form a good picture," Klett said.
She has gone through several phases of doodling, but most of them involve patterns centered about names or words. Her sketchesrange from bubbly and swirly images to patterns for tattoos.
CLASS="article--image" BORDER="0"> Courtesy Kyle Labranche [ CLICK FOR FULL SIZE ]
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"I can't make realistic images so that is why I doodle," Klett said.
In elementary school, she was in awe of people who could draw, but she did not discover her love for doodling until she took an art class in seventh grade.
There, other students noticed her creative patterns and would ask her to make cards for them out of her doodles. One boy even asked her to design a tattoo for him.
Klett's designs are quite unique and abstract.
"It is kind of like looking at clouds where everyone can see something different in the picture," Klett said. "This lets the imagination wander."
Sometimes, she will coordinate with a friend to create a doodle.
One game she plays while in class is where someone first draws an unusual object and the other person makes a picture out of it. Another game involves passing the doodle back and forth and letting each person add something to the design.
LaBranche also makes games out of his doodles.
"When I am really bored, I make little games to play like drawing stars and trying to make them cross at the same point," LaBranche said as he started to draw small stars in his notebook with a black pen covered by a chewed-up cap.
Often times, he will invite neighboring students into his games, challenging them to dots or hangman.
While it would seem as though LaBranche's grades would suffer from his non-academic pursuits, he claims that they are not affected. He does admit that he cannot study from his notes and has to depend on the book and practice tests to prepare for exams.
"My notes are useless because I have lost whatever it was I was supposed to be focused on if I am doodling," LaBranche said.
Klett also claims doodling does not affect her grades.
"In math, I have a couple of friends in there who will fill in the gaps," she said. "But when it is really important that I pay attention, I pretty much will put down my sharpie and pick up my ball point"
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