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 "chirality"

chirality

Technical term for ˜handedness' (from cheiro, Greek for hand). Objects that lack rotational symmetry but possess bilateral (reflective) symmetry have a left side and a right side (as we do). Objects with rotational symmetry but without reflective symmetry (e.g. a pinwheel or a Möbius strip) have mirror image forms (sinistral or dextral) that are non-super imposable (enantiomers). Solutions of enantiomeric molecules rotate the plane of a polarized light beam in opposite directions by the same amount (˜optical activity').

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education

chirality

[OED]: Of a crystal or three-dimensional form: not superposable on its mirror image.

Linguistics

OED Online (2nd Ed.)

Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition