Suggests that scientific thought experiments (TEs) draw upon three epistemological resources: conceptual-logical inferences, visual imagery, and bodily-motor experience. Argues that TEs are powerful because of students' thought capabilities related to imagination and visual imagery. Claims that TEs are not currently exploited by school learning…

Describes new geometric computer models used in contemporary computer-aided design (CAD) software including wire frame, surface, solid, and parametric models. Reviews their use in engineering design and discusses the impact of these new technologies on the engineering design graphics curriculum. (Author/CCM)

Describes how to deal with students' structuring of rectangular arrays of squares and other two-dimensional regions. Presents activities that connect spatial structuring to the development of multiplicative thinking. (ASK)

In this article, we examine the role of visuospatial cognition in chemistry learning. We review three related kinds of literature: correlational studies of spatial abilities and chemistry learning, students' conceptual errors and difficulties understanding visual representations, and visualization tools that have been designed to help overcome…

Individuals' mental maps of the world are highly misrepresentative of the actual world. Availability in memory partly explains the reasons for this misrepresentation. When asked to place the 50 states in their correct locations, students have difficulty with states not in close proximity to their own because of availability, such that the…

The purpose of the present study is twofold: the first objective is to evaluate the importance of visual experience for the ability to form a spatial representation (spatial mental model) of fairly elaborate spatial descriptions. Secondly, we examine whether blind people exhibit the same preferences (i.e. level of performance on spatial tasks) as…

In resource-based learning scenarios, students are often overwhelmed by the complexity of task-relevant knowledge and information. Techniques for the external interactive representation of individual knowledge in graphical format may help them to cope with complex problem situations. Advanced computer-based concept-mapping tools have the potential…

Geographic information systems (GIS) are computer-based tools for geographic data analysis and spatial visualization. They have become one of the information and communications technologies for education at all levels. This article reviews the current status of GIS in schools, analyzes the requirements of a GIS-based learning environment from…

High-level visual processes make use of stored information, and are invoked during object identification, navigation, tracking, and visual mental imagery. The work presented in this document has resulted in a theory of the component "processing subsystems" used in high-level vision. This theory was developed by considering…

This study examines the Wheatley Cube as a measure of spatial/visualization ability. The Wheatley Cube is a computer managed task which requires the subject to visualize a three-dimensional workspace and to find an invisible dot located within this space. Thirty-three undergraduate students were administered four tests of spatial/imaginal ability…

This series of activities on spatial relationships was designed to help users acquire the skills of spatial visualization and orientation and to improve their effectiveness in applying those skills. The series contains an introduction to spatial orientation with several self-directed activities to help improve that skill. It also contains seven…

Large-sample item response data for the 10-item Paper Folding worksample 622 (N=2,749) and for five new experimental paper folding items (N=2,514) are analyzed with the logistic item response model and with full-information item factor analysis. The main results of the unidimensional analysis are that: (1) item discrimination is heterogeneous, so…

Second- and fourth-grade children viewed a cylindrical object in nine positions and identified the 90- , 180- , or 270-degree positions from a set of photographs. Perspectives in which the object differed from the child's view in both left-right and near-far dimensions were more difficult than perspectives that only transformed one dimension.…

Stresses the importance of visualization in mathematics education by reviewing research dealing with the relationship between mathematical and spatial ability, and recommends that such findings be incorporated into mathematics instruction. (JJD)

Presents a ping-pong activity to teach the coordinate plane that puts students in a position to experience and relate to the coordinate plane in a manner that evokes their visual, spatial, and physical senses while linking the plane with a familiar object. (ASK)