Spatial Concept Perspectives

We have gathered ~300 excerpts from published works about fundamental spatial concept terms. These have been cross-referenced with the concept lexicon appearing on the left. Those terms were drawn from the U.S.National Science Education Standards (NSES 1996) for topic areas B - Physical Science, C - Life Science, D - Earth and Space Science, as well as from the 1994 U.S. Geography Teaching Standards for grades 9-12. Those standards can be browsed here.

spatial concept terms

disciplinary perspectives on "atom"

atom

[OED]: 4. Originally (without explicit reference to Greek philosophy): each of the particles of which matter is ultimately composed, aggregates of which constitute material objects. Later: (Chem. and Physics) a particle of a chemical element which is the unit in which the elements combine and which cannot be further divided into smaller particles all having the properties of that element; the smallest particle in which a chemical element exists and combines.

Linguistics

OED Online (2nd Ed.)

Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition

units

The components of systems that cannot be reduced to smaller subunits and retain their identity and role. Examples include atoms and the fundamental subatomic particles, photons and quanta, bits and pixels in information streams and representations, cells in all organisms, and the codon and gene in genetics.

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education