Research on spatial navigation is essential to understanding how mobile species adapt to their environments. Such research increasingly uses virtual environments (VEs) because, although VE has drawbacks, it allows for standardization of procedures, precision in measuring behaviors, ease in introducing variation, and cross-investigator…

Spatial fluency describes the ability and confidence of an individual to navigate and negotiate their experiences in a postdigital world. This paper reflects on teaching and learning experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and its aftermath, and on the volatile nature of social media, and the threats and opportunities afforded by AI. It…

The determination of latitude and longitude on Earth has always been of interest to explorers and cartographers alike. Accurate positional information is often needed for rescue purposes in locations where satellite navigational systems are inoperable. The activity described in this paper demonstrates a simple procedure to determine latitude and…

Despite their lack of vision, congenitally blind subjects are able to build and manipulate cognitive maps for spatial navigation. It is assumed that they thereby rely more heavily on echolocation, proprioceptive signals and environmental cues such as ambient temperature and audition to compensate for their lack of vision. Little is known, however,…

Certain secondary school subjects, such as geography, contain topics which are based on mathematical concepts. However, some geography teachers either fail to recognize this connection or choose to ignore it when they teach. Instead, they present the subject matter as a collection of facts, which need to be memorized and reproduced by the pupils.…

Satellite navigation is widely used for personal navigation and more and more in precise and safety-critical applications. Thus, the subject is suited for attracting the interest of young people in science and engineering. The practical applications allow catching the students' attention for the theoretical background. Educational material on the…

Migrating animals do amazing things. Homing pigeons can find their way "home" across hundreds of miles; salmon return to their spawning location thousands of miles away; turtles travel over eight thousand miles to lay their eggs in the spot where they originally hatched. Scientists have studied how animals navigate around the globe and have…

The technology of satellite imagery and remote sensing adds a new dimension to teaching and learning about maps with elementary school children. Just a click of the mouse brings into view some images of the world that could only be imagined a generation ago. Close-up aerial pictures of the school and neighborhood quickly catch the interest of…

This article provides a theoretical foundation for understanding women's technical skill development (TSD) in outdoor adventure. An examination of societal and biological factors influencing women's TSD focuses on gender role socialization, sense of competence, technical conditioning, sexism, spatial ability, and risk-taking. The article suggests…

As more archival metadata and archival records become available online, providing effective interfaces to those materials is increasingly important to give users access. This article describes five approaches from the hypertext and visualization research communities which can be used to improve such access: (1) navigating hierarchical structures,…

This paper documents issues in converting the Figure Classification Test to the computer. The purpose of the test, which is almost entirely visual, is to determine the subject's ability to discover rules via the visual/spatial environment. The methodology of the paper-and-pencil Figure Classification Test is as follows: the subject views a series…