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 "system"

chaos

Dynamic system behavior. Chaos is the erratic, complex, irregular behavior of non-linear systems with interdependent variables developing, evolving, functioning, or cycling under the influence of feedback. Frequently illustrated with Mandelbrot set images. Examples include weather and climate, development of organisms, and fluid flow.

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education

system

[OED]: I. An organized or connected group of objects.

1a. A set or assemblage of things connected, associated, or interdependent, so as to form a complex unity; a whole composed of parts in orderly arrangement according to some scheme or plan; rarely applied to a simple or small assemblage of things

Linguistics

OED Online (2nd Ed.)

Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition