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 "centrality"

alternating repetition

Centers intensify other centers by repeating...It is a fact about the world that things repeat...the repetition which occurs in things which have life is a very special kind of repetition. It is a kind where the rhythm of the centers that repeat is underlined, and intensified, by an alternating rythm interlocked with the first and where a second system of centers also repeats, in parallel...(this) intensifies the first system, by providing a kind of counterpoint, or opposing beat (p 165-6)

Alexander (2004)

The Nature of Order, Book 1: The Phenomenon of Life

centrality

[OED]: (central) 1a. Of or pertaining to the centre or middle; situated in, proceeding from, containing or constituting the centre.

Center: 1a. The point round which a circle is described; the middle point of a circle or sphere, equally distant from all points on the circumference.

4. The point, pivot, axis, or line round which a body turns or revolves; the fixed or unmoving centre of rotation or revolution.

6a. The point round which things group themselves or revolve, or that forms a nucleus or point of concentration for its surroundings. spec. (orig.

Linguistics

OED Online (2nd Ed.)

Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition