Describes seven spatial abilities related to mathematics including eye-motor coordination, figure-ground perception, perceptual constancy, position-in-space perception, perception of spatial relationships, visual discrimination, and visual memory. Discusses the relationship of the spatial abilities to the study of geometry. Lists 19 references.…

Summarizes findings from research related to spatial abilities. Provided are suggestions for developing spatial abilities. Lists nine references. (YP)

Provided are activities for creating tangrams. Illustrates how to make tangrams and use them. (YP)

Presented are three cases for intuitive understanding in secondary and college level geometry. Four ways to develop the intuition (physical experience, mutable manipulatives, visualization, and looking back) step are discussed. (YP)

Discusses teaching geometric concepts, including various shapes, patterns, and areas based on the NCTM Standards. Presented are activities for the geometric concepts. (YP)

Presents techniques for developing spatial visualization while dealing with concepts of area, proportion, and symmetry. Provides the objectives, directions, extensions, answers, and worksheets for each of the four activities. Describes involving parents. (YP)

This study was designed to: (1) examine modes of representations used by middle school students in a building description task; (2) investigate individual differences in representation mode; and (3) determine the effect of spatial visualization activities on students' preference for mode and success rate. The activities were reported as…

Discusses four activities focusing on communication about shapes and spatial relationships. The activities include requiring students to sketch patterns, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional visualizations. Provides several figures showing the geometric shapes. (YP)

Investigates gender differences and the role of spatial visualization in problem solving in high school geometry. Reports that, whereas males and females differed in spatial visualization and in their performance, they did not differ in logical reasoning ability or in their use of geometric problem-solving strategies. (Author)

Describes four activities to develop visualization skills and the concept of dimensionality in which students (1) visualize transforming figures between the second and third dimensions; (2) identify the three-dimensional objects from their two-dimensional projections; (3) conjecture about the vertices, edges, and faces of zero- to four-dimensional…

Describes five skills underpinning the understanding of geometry for primary and lower secondary mathematics students. Skill categories identified include (1) visual; (2) verbal; (3) drawing; (4) logical; and (5) application. Gives examples of skills appropriate for Van Hiele levels 1-3. (MDH)