The CERI OECD/National Science Foundation International Conference took place in Paris, at the OECD Headquarters on 23-24 January 2012. Here the presentation of Session 5, Informal Learning, Item 1.

1. Spatial Thinking and STEM Education:
Drawing and Mapping
with New Technologies
David H. Uttal, Ken Forbus,
and Robert Kolvoord
SILC
Northwestern University

2. Spatial Thinking and STEM Education
• Emerging science education standards stress
– Problem-solving
– Modeling
– Understanding and representing data
• Spatial thinking is critical to this transformation in
how science and mathematics is taught and
learned.

3. Two efforts within SILC to …
• Understand
• Promote
• Assess
Spatial approaches to STEM education
1) CogSketch
2) The Geospatial Semester

4. CogSketch
Ken Forbus

5. Computer tutors and learning environments
need spatial capabilities
• Intelligent tutoring systems have provided valuable
benefits for education (e.g., Pittsburgh Science of
Learning Center)
• But not in spatially rich subjects (e.g., geology,
engineering)
• Sketch understanding software could change this
Ultimate goal:
Software that
understands sketches
as you would

6. Research Goals
1) A cognitive science research instrument.
– A computational model of spatial reasoning and learning
– A tool for gathering data in laboratory and classroom
studies
2) A platform for sketch-based intelligent educational
software
– Depends critically on research in artificial intelligence and
cognitive science (e.g., analogy and spatial
representation)

7. Sketching and Communication
• People talk when they sketch with each other
– Sketching is a social activity
• CogSketch provides a way around the
“recognition problem”
• Focus instead on human-like visual, spatial
& conceptual representations & reasoning
– Relationships between objects
– Relationships within objects (e.g. shape)

8. Interacting with CogSketch
• Draw ink, clicking finish when an
object is done
• Label objects via menus
– Zero recognition errors
• Knowledge base provides concepts for
labeling
– 58,000 concepts provide breadth
– Technical details hidden from users via UI

9. Sketch Worksheets
Provides task
for students
Fault worksheet
from Sageman’s
class

10. Sketch Worksheets
Student
sketches
their answers

11. Sketch Worksheets
Student gets
feedback on
demand

12. Original
Novice
Expert
Jee
et
al.,
under
review

13. Worksheets as Assessment Tool
• Partnership with Pittsburgh Science of Learning
Center (PSLC)
• Toward spatially-based formative assessment

14. Design Buddy: Setting and Problem
Engineering Design and Communication Course
at Northwestern University
Sketch +
language-like
Does this
explanation of design
make sense?
Feedback
Problem:
Students have trouble using
sketches to communicate

15. CogSketch Summary
• Sketch understanding is a central problem in spatial
learning
• CogSketch is useful for cognitive science research
• CogSketch is promising for education

16. Maps Influence Spatial Thinking (Uttal, 2000, 2005)

17. Promoting Spatial Problem Solving in
Science Education
• The Geospatial Semester
• Robert Kolvoord, James
Madison University
GIS = Geographic Information System

18. Geospatial Curriculum
• High school senior year elective
• Well specified scope and sequence

19. Course Design
• The Spatial Semesters:
– First semester students
work through a training
manual to become familiar
with the software.
– Second semester
students complete a
personally designed
project using the skills
they have learned.

20. Is it working?
• How do we tell?
• Many converging measures
– Rubric
– Quality of final projects
– SILC measures of spatial language
– Transfer problems (e.g., “The sheriff problem”)

23. Spatial Language Increases
across the Semester
Ra%o
of
dis%nct
words
for
each
category
14
12
Propor%on
of
Dis%nct
10
Int
One
Words
Spoken
Int
Three
8
Int
Four
6
4
2
0
Spa?al
Mo?on
Causality

24. Conclusions
• Spatial thinking is critically important to science
practice and education
• Drawing and mapping promote the kind of
science reasoning that NSF, National
Academies, and most teachers advocate
• And shed light on the nature of spatial reasoning
• Informs basic research
• Draw on basic science, map out implications for
learning