TeachSpatial: A Portal to Instructional Resources on Spatial Concepts for STEM Education

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) are addressing a blind-spot in American education. In a digital era that increasingly represents information visually as maps, graphs, and schematic images, many educators now recognize the need to complement traditional numerical/verbal literacy with an emphasis on spatial thinking. Spatial thinking integrates an understanding of concepts, such as distance, direction, scale, and pattern recognition, with the effective use of visual representations and spatial technologies, such as GPS and geographic information systems (GIS), to solve societal problems and to advance science. This project is addressing the need to embed spatial thinking in education with a new portal(http://teachspatial.org). TeachSpatial is a small-grant National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Pathways project that promotes discussion of spatial literacy among educators and provides guided access to relevant NSDL learning resources to help teachers integrate spatial thinking into course curricula for science and math-based disciplines. The TeachSpatial project is making explicit those spatial learning objectives that are implicit in existing science and math standards at the secondary level and is documenting a baseline for mastery of spatial concepts by new undergraduates. TeachSpatial is enabling instructors working as pioneers for spatial thinking to find resources (course syllabi, exercises, linked datasets, and exemplar applications) within NSDL, to access and contribute learning modules that promote spatial thinking and spatial computational reasoning, to exchange experiences and pedagogical strategies, and to offer evaluations of specific learning resources.