TeachSpatial | resources for spatial teaching and learning

a spatial lens on the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)
about spatial thinking...
a community of interest
directories of publications and links on spatial topics

Content

spatial thinking

concerns the relative locations of things, their static or dynamic shape and internal structure, and their movement in the world.

"...is the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to use concepts of space, tools of representation like maps and graphs, and processes of reasoning to organize and solve problems." *

"...is pervasive: it is vital across a wide range of domains of practical and scientific knowledge; yet it is underrecognized, undervalued, underappreciated, and therefore underinstructed." *

* from Learning to Think Spatially, a 2006 US National Research Council report

"spatial thinking can be improved by effective technology and education. But as the NRC report points out, we still don't know exactly how to infuse spatial thinking throughout the curriculum."
-- N. Newcombe (2006) A Plea for Spatial Literacy

recent
blog posts

popular resources

The Resource Browser application locates teaching resources related to spatial concepts cataloged in the National Science Digital Library and part of a new TeachSpatial collection.

Concept Perspectives is a collection of definitions and expository statements about spatial concepts and principles from multiple disciplinary perspectives. We welcome more.

The Standards Browser lists the spatial concepts found in U.S. science teaching standards for grades K-12 and U.S. geography standards for grades 9-12.

This version of TeachSpatial is intended to assist efforts at making the explicit instruction of spatial thinking part of the curriculum and of specific courses. Towards that end we have developed the above tools. Their development stems from these questions:

If there were a course in spatial thinking at the undergraduate level—perhaps consolidating and refreshing what was learned in high school—what would it consist of?
What is a set of key spatial learning objectives such a course might teach to?

Seismic Waves and the Slinky
By Prof. Lawrence W. Braile; Purdue University; cataloged for NSDL by the DLESE Pathway

From the resource web page:
"Seismic Waves: Because of the elastic properties of Earth materials (rocks) and the presence of the Earth's surface, four main types of seismic waves propagate within the Earth. Compressional (P) and Shear (S) waves propagate through the Earth’s interior and are known as body waves. Love and Rayleigh waves propagate primarily at and near the Earth's surface and are called surface waves. [...] The Love wave...is easy to demonstrate with a slinky or a double length slinky. Stretch the slinky out on the floor or on a tabletop and have one person at each end hold on to the end of the slinky. Generate the Love wave motion by quickly moving one end of the slinky to the left and then to the right. The horizontal shearing motion will propagate along the slinky. [...]