what does a course in spatial thinking look like

What are spatial thinking skills and how do you develop them?

The first step in developing spatial thinking skills is simple: talk! Dr. Susan Levine, from the University of Chicago, defines spatial vocabulary as “the ability to use spatial words for shapes and sizes, form a mental picture of shapes, and transform or rotate them mentally.”

How can I tell if my child is building spatial skills?

In short, if your child can talk about what an object looks like and how it behaves, then odds are they’re building spatial skills. Some terms that math teachers use include thick, vertical, straight, or curvy to describe shapes.

What is visual-spatial learning style?

Visual-spatial learning style, or visual-spatial intelligence, refers to a person's ability to perceive, analyze, and understand visual information in the world around them. Essentially, they can picture concepts with their mind's eye. 1 .

What is geospatial reasoning?

Geospatial reasoning creates an objective connection between our present geospatial beliefs and the evidence for believing something else. Spatial thinking includes processes that support exploration and understanding.

Which is an example of spatial thinking?

This is cognition about space and involves thinking about the ways in which the "world" works. An example might be how an earthquake creates a tsunami.

What is spatial thinking education?

Spatial thinking can be defined as a constructive combination of cognitive skills comprised of knowing concepts of space, using tools of representation, and applying processes of reasoning (NRC 2006, p. 12).

How do you teach spatial thinking?

How To Improve Visual Spatial IntelligenceUse Spatial Language In Everyday Interactions.Teach Using Gestures And Encourage Kids To Gesture.Teach Visualization.Play The Matching Game.Build Structures In A Storytelling Context.Do Tangram And Non-Jigsaw Spatial Puzzles.Expose To Map Reading.More items...•

What are spatial thinkers good at?

Spatial intelligence, or visuo-spatial ability, has been defined “the ability to generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images” (Lohman 1996). It's what we do when we visualize shapes in our “mind's eye.” It's the mental feat that architects and engineers perform when they design buildings.

How do I learn spatial awareness?

Various games and activities can help a child learn spatial awareness. Examples include playing with blocks, completing puzzles, and games like “Simon Says” and “I Spy”. Get active. Consider going to a playground and encouraging your child to play on the various kinds of equipment.

What is spatial thinking in math?

Spatial reasoning is defined as the ability to imagine things in three-dimensions. It includes the ability to move objects around in your mind. Spatial reasoning is an excellent way to teach math as it gives your students a means to visualize the math in their heads.

What are some spatial activities?

9 Everyday Activities to Increase Your Spatial IntelligenceUsing Spatial Vocabulary. ... Playing Chess. ... Playing with LEGO. ... Use Memory Palaces. ... Play Video Games. ... Fly a Drone. ... Create a Mental Map of Your City. ... Solve Puzzles.More items...•

What jobs use spatial reasoning?

Jobs Related to Spatial IntelligencesArchitects and Interior Designers. Many employers administer spatial ability tests to assess candidates when filling jobs that require high spatial intelligence. ... Engineers and Engineering Technicians. ... Cartographers and Photogrammetrists. ... Visual Artists and Graphic Designers.

What causes poor spatial awareness?

Spatial perception may be affected in some developmental disorders like autism, Asperger's, cerebral palsy, as well as others. In these cases, the problem lies in the lack of understanding of their own body. In other words, the lack of spatial perception towards their body and the difficulty to interpret it as a whole.

Who has high spatial intelligence?

Spatial intelligence is a foundational intelligence upon which many of the other eight intelligences rely and interact. Engineers, scientists, architects, and artists are among those that Gardner sees as having high spatial intelligence.

How do you know if you have high spatial intelligence?

What are some examples of what spatial intelligence looks like?Thinking in pictures rather than in words.Learning more easily when presented with visual rather than auditory information.Are “whole-picture thinkers” who grasp a concept all at once and see the whole before acknowledging the details.More items...•

What is the average spatial IQ?

Approximately 95% of the populace has an IQ falling between 70 and 130, leaving 2.5% below 70 and 2.5% scoring 130 and above. There are very few people who score in the upper regions of the scale.

Why is spatial thinking important?

Spatial thinking allows you to understand the location and dimension of objects, and how different objects are related. It also allows you to visualize and manipulate objects and shapes in your head.

What is spatial learning style?

A visual-spatial learner is a student who learns holistically rather than in a step-by-step fashion. Visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process. Because the individual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected (imagine a web).

Why spatial is special in education learning and everyday activities?

Spatial thinking as it relates to our everyday activities Space is s fundamental component to our cognition and behavior, as it surrounds us and affords us opportunities to function adaptively. Thinking in, about, and with space characterizes (or conditions) our everyday activities.

What are spatial skills for kids?

Spatial reasoning connects math to the physical world and includes skills like reading maps, understanding symmetry and building 3D objects. Research indicates that spatial reasoning skills correlate to early achievement in mathematics and "strongly predict" who will pursue STEM careers later in life.

Spatial Thinking and Learning

Spatial thinking, like any cognitive skill, can be taught and learned. (See Research on Spatial Thinking for a brief overview of relevant research literature).

Spatial Thinking in the Geosciences

Spatial thinking, while not unique to the geosciences, is one of the hallmarks of geoscientific thinking (e.g. Kastens et al., 2009; Manduca and Kastens, 2012). As Kastens et al.

Teaching Spatial Thinking

Because spatial thinking pervades the geosciences, it is best developed through multiple exposures in multiple contexts. To produce graduates who are proficient at spatial thinking, we need to infuse it in our undergraduate curricula. See examples of how faculty are teaching spatial thinking across the geoscience curriculum.

Get Involved

Share insights, ask questions or network with other faculty who are engaged in teaching or researching spatial thinking:

Practice Spatial Talk

The first step in developing spatial thinking skills is simple: talk! Dr.

Play with Shapes

Once you’ve practiced spatial talk and vocabulary with your child, it’s time to move onto the fun part: structured play! Through puzzles and block play, your child can hone their spatial orientation (what Dr. Levine defines as knowing where you are, how to get around, and the relationships between different positions in space).

Continue to Work on Spatial Thinking Skills

Spatial vocabulary and shape play are just the beginning, but they can help provide a solid (and fun!) foundation for your child that will benefit them for years to come. The activities are simple and can be integrated into what you’re already doing, making it simple to play an active role in your child’s success.

What do people with visual spatial intelligence learn best?

People with visual-spatial intelligence learn best when taught using written, modeled, or diagrammed instruction, and visual media. Visually and spatially talented students have a good visual memory for details. They do less well with auditory-sequential teaching methods such as lecture, recitation, drill, and repetition.

What is visual-spatial intelligence?

Visual-spatial learning style, or visual-spatial intelligence, refers to a person's ability to perceive, analyze, and understand visual information in the world around them. Essentially, they can picture concepts with their mind's eye. 1 . People with this learning style tend to think visually and often prefer learning the same way.

What are the characteristics of a learner?

She has identified a number of key characteristics of this type of learner: 1 They are whole-picture thinkers who grasp a concept all at once and see the whole before acknowledging the details. 2 They have vivid imaginations and are often good at coming up with unusual or unexpected ways to solve problems. 3 They learn more easily when presented with visual rather than auditory information 4 They may seem disorganized. 5 They neither learn in the step-by-step fashion that is common in the classroom nor learn well from drills and repetition. 6 They struggle with showing the sequence of a process. For example, when the teacher asks them to show their work, they cannot easily do that, since they see the task as a whole, rather than a product of several steps. Despite this, they are able to work on complex tasks and may be classified as systems thinkers. 7 They think in pictures rather than in words.

What is a whole picture thinker?

They are whole-picture thinkers who grasp a concept all at once and see the whole before acknowledging the details. They have vivid imaginations and are often good at coming up with unusual or unexpected ways to solve problems. They learn more easily when presented with visual rather than auditory information.

How to make learning more appealing for kids?

If you think that your child might lean toward this style of learning, one way to make learning more appealing is to make use of visual aids. Pictures, graphics, tablet games, and videos can be an effective way to make what your child is learning more interesting and accessible.

What percentage of students are visually-spatially strong?

Silverman's research suggests that approximately 30 percent of students can be considered strong visually-spatially, with another significant percentage leaning toward this learning style. 3 

Who coined the term "visual-spatial learner"?

The term "visual-spatial learner" was first coined by psychologist Linda Kreger Silverman Ph.D. , an expert on giftedness and the author of several books on visual-spatial learning. 2