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 "orientation"

angle

...students might abstract the similarity between intersections of lines, corners, bends in paths, and slopes (p 888)....the difficulties that students (have) relating the standard angle concept to various angle contexts (e.g. turning, slope) seemed to be directly dependent on the visual availibility or salience of structural angle components (the two sides and the vertex) in the contexts (p 889).

Mathematics

Battista (2007)

The Development of Geometric and Spatial Thinking

echoes

Echoes, as far as I can tell, depend on the angles, and families of angles, which are prevalent in the design (p 218). In the simpler cases of echoes, we see the family resemblance in different parts (of the design) because they are simply similar in shape...deriving from the angles (p 219). The more interesting cases arise when we can feel or sense a general family resemblance among a group of motifs...(p 220).

Alexander (2004)

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

orientation

Learning to measure strike and dip of sedimentary strata or other planar surfaces is a well-known stumbling block for introductory geoscience students.... Strike is the compass azimuth of the line defining the intersection between the surface to be described and the horizontal plane. Dip is the angle between the horizontal plane and the surface to be described, measured within a vertical plane perpendicular to the strike line. Strike and dip measurements can be made in the field with a geologist's compass.

Earth Science

Kastens and Ishikawa (2006)

Spatial thinking in the geosciences and cognitive sciences: A cross-disciplinary look at the intersection of two fields

orientation

Accessibility of directions depends on asymmetries of the body and asymmetries of the world (p 7). Along the [front/back] axis, front has a special status, as it is the direction of orientation, of perception, and of potential movement (p 7).

Psychology

Tversky (2005)

Functional Significance of Visuospatial Representations