Getting Started with Spatial Thinking

Getting Started with Spatial

ThinkingSarah Witham Bednarz

Texas Alliance for Geographic EducationTexas A&M University

Mapping It Out…

• What is spatial thinking?

• Why is it important: Making the case…– U and U

• The AGSSS Project (briefly)

• Concrete strategies YOU can use to build students’ geographic (and spatial) awareness and capabilities

Geographic/Spatial Thinking

• Knowledge, skills, and habits of mind

• To use– Concepts of space– Tools of

representation– Processes of

reasoning

To structure problems, find answers, and express solutions to these problems.

Thinking Spatially• What do we mean by “Space”

– Key concepts: Distance, direction, point, region etc.

• What are examples of “Representation”– Maps, diagrams, graphs, charts, concept maps

• What is “Reasoning”– Ways of thinking: cognitive strategies,

problem solving methods, decision making skills

Thinking Spatially Requires…

• Spatial/geographic knowledge– Concepts

• Spatial/geographic ways of thinking & acting– Strategies

• Spatial/geographic capabilities– Tools and technologies

Why is Geo-Spatial Thinking Important?

• Spatial thinking is important in science & social sciences

• Spatial thinking is important in the workplace

• Spatial thinking is important in daily life• Success in geo-spatial thinking is

aligned with success in school

We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid

(DNA). This structure has novel features which are of considerable

biological interest.Watson and Crick, 1953

• Dr. John Snow

• Doherty Senior Research Scientist Lex van Geen, center, analyzing well water in Arahaizar Upazila with the prototype of a new field-kit for arsenic -- part of a 5-year epidemiological and earth science study of the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh funded by the Superfund Basic Research Program.

Doherty Senior Research Scientist Lex van Geen, center, analyzing well water in

Arahaizar Upazila with the prototype of a new field-kit for arsenic -- part of a 5-year epidemiological and earth science study of the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh funded by the Superfund Basic Research Program.

Why is Geo-Spatial Thinking Important?

• Spatial thinking is important in science & social sciences

• Spatial thinking is important in the workplace

• Spatial thinking is important in daily life

• Success in spatial thinking is aligned with success in school

ST in Learning Social Sciences

• Maps

ST in Learning Social Sciences

• Maps• Population

Pyramids

ST in Learning Social Sciences

• Maps• Population

Pyramids• Circle Graphs

ST in Learning Social Sciences

Line Graphs Bar Graphs

http://www.rssweather.com/climate/Kansas/Wichita/

Why is Geo-Spatial Thinking Important?

• Spatial thinking is important in science& social sciences

• Spatial thinking is important in the workplace

• Spatial thinking is important in daily life

• Success in spatial thinking is aligned with success in school

Workplace

http://flightaware.com/

Workplace

http://flightaware.com/

Workplace

New Yorker Cartoon

Why is Geo-Spatial Thinking Important?

• Spatial thinking is important in science & social sciences

• Spatial thinking is important in the workplace

• Spatial thinking is important in daily life

• Success in spatial thinking aligned with success in school

Everyday Life

• Reading a newspaper

• Finding the toilet in an unfamiliar place

• Navigating around a supermarket

Everyday Life

• Reading a newspaper

• Finding the toilet in an unfamiliar place

• Navigating around a supermarket

• Packing the trunk of your car

Everyday Life

• Reading a newspaper

• Finding the toilet in an unfamiliar place

• Navigating around a supermarket

• Packing the trunk of your car

• Assembling furniture

Everyday Life

• Reading a newspaper• Finding the toilet in

an unfamiliar place• Navigating around a

supermarket• Packing the trunk of

your car• Assembling furniture• Installing a baby seat

Why is Geo-Spatial Thinking Important?

• Spatial thinking is important in science & social sciences

• Spatial thinking important in the workplace

• Spatial thinking is important in daily life

• Success in spatial thinking aligned with success in school

Fundamental Learning Skills

• Spatial thinking helps us to– Remember | navigate– Understand | measure– Reason | create meaningful maps and interpret them– Communicate | non spatial reasoning tasks

• Spatial thinking plays a major role in learning, remembering, and problem solving.

• Facilitate encoding of information• Recall of information• Strategies to solve problems• Transfer of problem solving skills to new domains

Description v. Depiction

• The cat’s room is on the left side of the rabbit’s room.

• The pig’s rooms is on the left side of the cat’s room.

• The dog’s room is in front of the pig’s room.• The bear’s room is on the right side of the dog’s

room.• The frog’s room is on the right side of the bear’s

room.PIG CAT RABBIT

DOG BEAR FROG

U and U

•Uand…

•U

biquitous

ninstructed

Getting Started …Standards Revision

• Standard 1, 1994– How to use maps and

other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information

• Standard 1, 2009– How to use maps and

other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate information

• Standard 3, 2009– Inclusion of a strand focused

on the development of spatial concepts, from K to 12th grade

Overall integration of geospatial technologies within the expectations of what students can do with what they know across the 18 Standards

Getting Started…

Getting Started…

Advancing Geospatial Skills in Science & Social Science

(AGSSS)

Working with TeachersWorking with Teachers Working with StudentsWorking with Students

Getting Started…

ObservationsObservations“Zoom in to a location at the edge…”“Zoom in to a location at the edge…”

• Understanding spatial thinking is a challenge.

• Language is a barrier.• Student spatial thinking

preferences change with explicit instruction.

• Spatial thinking can be taught.– Questionnaire

Strategies to Support Geographic Thinking

• Spatialization• Awareness• Gestures• Language

S A G L

Spatialization

• Set ideas into spatial contexts

• See similar things as close, dissimilar things as far

• Maps, maps, maps• Help students develop

the ability to recognize scenes/places from different perspectives

• Enhance the spatial aspects of activities

Awareness• Set ideas into spatial contexts

• See similar things as close, dissimilar things as far

• Draw & use diagrams, graphs, sketches to both think & communicate– Look for patterns, clusters,

outliers & anomolies– And teach with and about

them explicitly• Seek relationships among spatial

patterns– Comparing maps to seek

relationships

Gestures

• Gestures capture spatial information.• Gesture spatializes ideas that are not inherently

spatial– e.g. two points of view; coming into conflict, being

negotiated

• Boys are better at mental rotation tasks than girls.

• Boys use their hands to gesture more than girls to talk about motion.

Concrete Strategy

• Be conscious of gestures

• Expose students to other people’s gestures

• Encourage students to use gestures themselves

• Gesture is an ideal tool to explore what students know about space

Strategies to Support Spatial Thinking

• Make good use of language– spatial language--how to

describe patterns, remote sensing, scenes

– how to describe locations– provide students with a

rich vocabulary to think and write about spatial relations

– ask students to talk about/write about maps, pictures, etc.

Region & Hierarchy• Group• Category• Formal• Nodal•Classification

HIERARCHY• position• enclosure• subdivision• subregion• area in larger area

REGION

Sequence

• Transition• Gradient• Slope• Gradual/steep• Blend• Rate of change

Getting Started with Spatial Thinking

• A simple formula:(instructional time) + (materials) +

(activities)

In the context of a supportive environment that gives students multiple opportunities

Click here to full extent (zoom all the way out).

Use this to turn the small state map off/on.

Click a folder to expand or collapse

the associated layers.

ACTIVE LAYER:  Check the box next to a layer name to make the layer visible on the map. Once a layer is visible on the map it can be selected as active.

Return to the previous view of the map.

Zoom in either by clicking on the map, or by clicking and dragging a rectangle.

Zoom out by clicking on any point on the map.

Click to measure between points on the map.

Find features in layers of the map.

A buffer is a zone showing distance to a feature on the map. Create a buffer around a feature using the SELECT tool.

Click to ask a question (Build a Query). Build a query on the ACTIVE layer allows you to compare data to solve a problem.

IDENTIFY a feature on the ACTIVE layer by clicking on the map.

Clear all selections and measurements on map.

Click here to return to the welcome page. Interactive Mapping

Service Help

Map Scale

* Layers marked with an asterisk

cannot be selected as the active layer.

^ The area surveyed overlaps district boundaries.

^^ The area surveyed overlaps district boundaries; demographic numbers derived from sample data.

 Click on a visible layer's name to make it active.

Making a layer active will make it visible on the map. A layer must be active in order to use any tools on it.

The active layer is highlighted in yellow.

Reload map.

Identify the selected layer and the tool selected.

Clic

k to

ope

n

A layer is a set of data that can be viewed on the map. Click here to view layers.

To view the map legend click here. Map legend only shows ACTIVE layers.

Geographic Thinking & Learning

• Summary: Students SHOULD…

• Summary: Students SHOULD NOT…

A Values Proposition

• What is the value of thinking spatially?

• What is the harm if students cannot think spatially?

http://agsss.tamu.edu