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 "structure"

folding

Doubling, turning, or laying back of parts of a structure, stratum, layer, or membrane on itself. Folds produce anticlines and synclines in rock formations; plications are repeated sharp folds. Protein 'folding' describes the specific manner in which polypeptide chains form minimum energy configurations such as an alpha helix or beta sheet. Folds occur in systems that pack large amounts of surface into a given volume such brain tissue, grana in chloroplasts, stacks of pigment 'discs' in retinal rod cells, gill tissue in crustaceans, etc.

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education

part-whole

...psychological/neurological research...indicates that perceptual wholes are built up from parts-based representations. Furthermore, there is a separation in perceiving parts of shapes and relationships between parts, and there is a separation in perceiving global or local features of shapes (p 858)....students first attend to whole shapes; ...students often notice parts of shapes, but not relationships between parts; students (then) shift from focusing on wholes to focusing on relationships between parts...(p 858).

Mathematics

Battista (2007)

The Development of Geometric and Spatial Thinking

structure

at the scale of a small place, (structure) is the sense of how its parts fit together and in a large settlement is the sense of orientation: knowing where (or when) one is, which implies knowing how other places (or times) are connected to this place. (p 134)

Design (urban, architecture)
Architecture

Lynch (1984)

Good City Form

structure

The arrangement of interconnecting parts or components of objects, structures, organisms, and (by analogy) systems, processes, organizations, and information (e.g., languages). Construction is the process of forming a structure. The characteristics of structures include (physically or figuratively) foundations, framework, loads, plans, size, stability, supports, symmetry, etc. Representationsof structures include compartments, cutaways, diagrams, plans, sections, etc.

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education

structuring

Geometry learning can be viewed as involving three types of structuring, (a) spatial structuring constructs a spatial organization or form for an object or set of objects.

Mathematics

Battista (2007)

The Development of Geometric and Spatial Thinking