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

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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

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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?

A Quantum Bouncing Ball
By Julio Gea-Banaloche ; University of Arkansas; cataloged for NSDL by the ComPADRE Pathway

From the resource web page:
[...] The red dot in the picture shows the corresponding motion for a classical object. The number at the top of the picture is the number of classical bounces. You may notice that the quantum motion is not periodic and that after a while it becomes seemingly random (if it's stopped, view the animation on the resource site). However, after about twenty classical bounces the wavepacket seems to collect itself and starts to bounce fairly regularly again, only it is a half-cycle out of phase with the classical "ball." [...]