The CERI OECD/National Science Foundation International Conference took place in Paris, at the OECD Headquarters on 23-24 January 2012. Here the presentation of Session 5, Informal Learning, Item 1.
Spatial Thinking and Stem Education: Drawing and Mapping with New Technologies
1. Spatial Thinking and STEM Education:
Drawing and Mapping
with New Technologies
David H. Uttal, Ken Forbus,
and Robert Kolvoord
SILC
Northwestern University
2. 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.
3. Two efforts within SILC to …
• Understand
• Promote
• Assess
Spatial approaches to STEM education
1) CogSketch
2) The Geospatial Semester
5. 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
6. 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)
7. 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)
8. 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
12. Original
Novice
Expert
Jee
et
al.,
under
review
13. Worksheets as Assessment Tool
• Partnership with Pittsburgh Science of Learning
Center (PSLC)
• Toward spatially-based formative assessment
14. Design Buddy: Setting and Problem
Engineering Design and Communication Course
at Northwestern University
Sketch +
language-like
Does this
explanation of design
make sense?
Feedback
Problem:
Students have trouble using
sketches to communicate
15. CogSketch Summary
• Sketch understanding is a central problem in spatial
learning
• CogSketch is useful for cognitive science research
• CogSketch is promising for education
17. Promoting Spatial Problem Solving in
Science Education
• The Geospatial Semester
• Robert Kolvoord, James
Madison University
GIS = Geographic Information System
19. 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.
20. 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”)
23. Spatial Language Increases
across the Semester
Ra%o
of
dis%nct
words
for
each
category
14
12
Propor%on
of
Dis%nct
10
Int
One
Words
Spoken
Int
Three
8
Int
Four
6
4
2
0
Spa?al
Mo?on
Causality
24. 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