Spatial Thinking and Stem Education: Drawing and Mapping with New Technologies

Spatial Thinking and STEM Education: Drawing and Mapping with New Technologies

David H. Uttal, Ken Forbus, and Robert Kolvoord

SILC Northwestern University

Spatial Thinking and STEM Education

•  Emerging science education standards stress –  Problem-solving –  Modeling –  Understanding and representing data

•  Spatial thinking is critical to this transformation in how science and mathematics is taught and learned.

Two efforts within SILC to … •  Understand •  Promote •  Assess

Spatial approaches to STEM education

1) CogSketch 2) The Geospatial Semester

CogSketch

Ken Forbus

Computer tutors and learning environments need spatial capabilities

•  Intelligent tutoring systems have provided valuable benefits for education (e.g., Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center)

•  But not in spatially rich subjects (e.g., geology, engineering)

•  Sketch understanding software could change this

Ultimate goal: Software that

understands sketches as you would

Research Goals

1) A cognitive science research instrument. –  A computational model of spatial reasoning and learning –  A tool for gathering data in laboratory and classroom

studies

2) A platform for sketch-based intelligent educational software –  Depends critically on research in artificial intelligence and

cognitive science (e.g., analogy and spatial representation)

Sketching and Communication

•  People talk when they sketch with each other –  Sketching is a social activity

•  CogSketch provides a way around the “recognition problem”

•  Focus instead on human-like visual, spatial & conceptual representations & reasoning –  Relationships between objects –  Relationships within objects (e.g. shape)

Interacting with CogSketch

•  Draw ink, clicking finish when an object is done

•  Label objects via menus –  Zero recognition errors

•  Knowledge base provides concepts for labeling –  58,000 concepts provide breadth –  Technical details hidden from users via UI

Sketch Worksheets

Provides task for students

Fault worksheet from Sageman’s

class

Sketch Worksheets

Student sketches

their answers

Sketch Worksheets

Student gets feedback on

demand

Original   Novice   Expert  

Jee  et  al.,  under  review  

Worksheets as Assessment Tool

•  Partnership with Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC)

•  Toward spatially-based formative assessment

Design Buddy: Setting and Problem Engineering Design and Communication Course

at Northwestern University

Problem: Students have trouble using sketches to communicate

Does this make sense?

Sketch + language-like

explanation of design

Feedback

CogSketch Summary •  Sketch understanding is a central problem in spatial

learning •  CogSketch is useful for cognitive science research •  CogSketch is promising for education

Maps Influence Spatial Thinking (Uttal, 2000, 2005)

Promoting Spatial Problem Solving in Science Education

•  The Geospatial Semester •  Robert Kolvoord, James

Madison University

GIS = Geographic Information System

Geospatial Curriculum

•  High school senior year elective •  Well specified scope and sequence

Course Design

•  The Spatial Semesters:

–  First semester students work through a training manual to become familiar with the software.

–  Second semester students complete a personally designed project using the skills they have learned.

Is it working? •  How do we tell? •  Many converging measures

–  Rubric –  Quality of final projects –  SILC measures of spatial language –  Transfer problems (e.g., “The sheriff problem”)

Spatial Language Increases across the Semester

0  

2  

4  

6  

8  

10  

12  

14  

Spa?al   Mo?on   Causality  

Prop

or%o

n  of  Dis%n

ct    

Words  Spo

ken  

Ra%o  of  dis%nct  words  for  each  category    

Int  One  Int  Three  Int  Four  

Conclusions •  Spatial thinking is critically important to science

practice and education •  Drawing and mapping promote the kind of

science reasoning that NSF, National Academies, and most teachers advocate

•  And shed light on the nature of spatial reasoning •  Informs basic research •  Draw on basic science, map out implications for

learning