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 "space-time"

fields in space and time

Topic CF4-3. Define a field in terms of properties, space, and time; Identify applications and phenomena that are not adequately modeled by the field view; Identify examples of discrete and continuous change found in spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal fields; Differentiate various sources of fields, such as substance properties (e.g., temperature), artificial constructs (e.g., population density), and fields of potential or influence (e.g., gravity); Formalize the notion of field using mathematical functions and calculus; Relate the notion of field in GIS to the mathematical notions of scalar and vector fields; Recognize the influences of scale on the perception and meaning of fields; Evaluate the representation of movement as a field of location over time [e.g.,

Geography
Education

DiBiase, et al. (2006)

Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

space and time

Topic CF3-3. Discuss common prepositions and adjectives (in any particular language) that signify either spatial or temporal relations but are used for both kinds, such as 'after' or 'longer'; Compare and contrast the characteristics of spatial and temporal dimensions; Identify various types of geographic interactions in space and time; Describe different types of movement and change; Understand the physical notions of velocity and acceleration which are fundamentally about movement across space through time.

Geography
Education

DiBiase, et al. (2006)

Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

space as time

It is fairly common in thinking about the Earth to find that variation or progression through space is closely connected with variation or progression through time. For example, within a basin of undeformed sedimentary rocks, the downward direction corresponds to increasing time since deposition. On the seafloor, distance away from the mid-ocean-ridge spreading center corresponds to increasing time since formation of that strip of seafloor. As a consequence, geologists often think about distance in space when they really want to be thinking about duration of geologic time.

Earth Science

Kastens and Ishikawa (2006)

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

space-time

it is important to know when an occurrence exists. Occurrences generally are not permanent, invariant, or immortal (p. 33)

Geography

Golledge (1995)

Primitives of Spatial Knowledge

space-time

To comprehend the change or changing locations of people, features, or phenomena in space as a result of time (p. 95)

Geography

Golledge, et al. (2008)

Matching geospatial concepts with geographic educational needs

space-time

Recognize temporal diffusion over space and time (p. 698)

Geography

Marsh, et al. (2008)

Geospatial Concept Understanding and Recognition in G6-College Students: A Preliminary Argument for Minimal GIS

time

Topic CF3-2. Differentiate between mathematical and phenomenological theories of the nature of time; Exemplify different temporal frames of reference: linear and cyclical, absolute and relative; Recognize the role that time plays in 'static' GISystems; Compare and contrast models of a given spatial process using continuous and discrete perspectives of time; Select the temporal elements of geographic phenomena that need to be represented in particular GIS applications.

Geography
Education

DiBiase, et al. (2006)

Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

time

Time is perceived and represented visually relative to cycles, events, measurements, motions, changes, and transformations. Cores from ice, rocks, sediments and trees contain time dependent layers. Iterative irreversible events (generally planetary) define time; (entropy is 'time's arrow'). Radioactive decay is used in dating very long processes. Time is a dimension of space in relativistic physics. [See magnitude.]

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education