Enchancing Spatial Reasoning and Visual Cognition for Early Science and Engineering Students with 'Hands-on' Interactive Tools and Exercises

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary (99) Many problems in science, engineering, and mathematics are inherently spatial in nature. Examples are understanding and reasoning about atoms in a molecule, the design of mechanical and electronic systems such as robots, the layout of an integrated circuit or microelectronic mechanical chip, and the transmission of tension and compression forces in a structural system. These problems all demand the ability to visualize and reason spatially. Surprisingly, students of science and engineering are seldom taught these skills. Visual thinking and the ability to reason spatially can be taught and learned: indeed, this is a central component of architectural design education. We teach architects to manage and manipulate complex configurations of physical elements in space, and architectural educators have developed techniques for teaching this ability. In the past, the principal means for teaching spatial and visual thinking has been drawing and three-dimensional model-making. Today interactive media and software tools augment these traditional methods. Based on experience with teaching visual skills to architectural designers we are developing a series of exercises that, as part of a course on visual and spatial reasoning, can enhance science, mathematics, and engineering education for undergraduate students. The exercises include drawing with pencil and paper as well as computational drawing media, physical as well as computer-graphics based three dimensional modeling, and techniques for shifting between computational and physical representations. We are testing these exercises in a course taught to first-year college students and assessing the learning experience using both formative and summative evaluations.