Spatial Thinking &
NYS Regents Earth Science:
Finding the Spatial
Dr. Kim Kastens &
Dr. Michael Passow
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Originally presented:
American Museum of Natural History
April 11, 2012 and July 10, 2012
Updated for STANYS 2014
From 1941 Earth Science Regents exam
http://earth2class.org/site/educational-resources/spatialthinking/
Spatial thinking is thinking that finds
meaning in the
• shape,
• size,
• orientation,
• location,
• direction, or
• trajectory
….of objects, processes, or
phenomena,
….or the relative positions in space of
multiple objects, processes, or
phenomena.
Spatial Thinking in Earth System Science
• Describing the shapes of natural objects, rigorously
and unambiguously.
 Categorizing objects by their shape.
 Ascribing meaning to the shape of a natural object.
• Recognizing a shape or pattern amid a cluttered
noisy background.
 Visualizing a 3-D object or structure or process by
examining observations collected in one or two
dimensions.
 Describing the position and orientation of objects in
the real world relative to a coordinate system anchored
to the Earth.
Kastens, K. A. and T. Ishikawa (2006). Spatial Thinking in the Geosciences and Cognitive Sciences. In Earth and Mind., C.
Manduca, D. Mogk and N. Stillings, editors, Geological Society of America Special Paper 413, p. 53-76.
• Recalling locations of previously observed geological
phenomena.
• Mentally manipulating a volume by folding, faulting,
and eroding.
• Envisioning the motion of objects or materials through
space in three dimensions.
• Making and interpreting spatial representations
(including maps).
• Using spatial thinking to think about time.
• Using spatial thinking to think about non-spatial
properties.
Kastens, K. A. and T. Ishikawa (2006). Spatial Thinking in the Geosciences and Cognitive Sciences. In Earth and Mind., C. Manduca, D.
Mogk and N. Stillings, editors, Geological Society of America Special Paper 413, p. 53-76.
Classifying or categorizing an object by its shape
Marshak, Stephen, (200) Earth Portrait of a Planet, new York, W.W. Norton &
Co. Inc., Appendix B-2 Flow Charts for Identifying Minerals .
Ascribing meaning to the shape of a natural object.
Distribution of modern species of planktonic
foraminifera. Figure 16-1 in: Kennett, James (1982) Marine
Geology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Mylonite. Note fine grain size and strong foliation
probably caused by intense shearing.
Source: http://www.glg.ed.ac.uk/cgi-bin-2/config2-spvft
Source: http://www.geolab.unc.edu/Petunia/IgMetAtlas/meta-micro/mylonite.X.html
Mentally manipulating a volume by folding,
faulting and eroding.
Figure 24.13 in: Ramsay, John G. and Martin I. Huber (1987) The Techniques of Modern Structural Geology, Volume 2:
Folds and Fractures. New York: Academic Press; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers.
Visualizing a 3-D object or structure or process
by examining observations collected in
one or two dimensions.
Spatial cognition is a well-developed field of
cognitive and learning science research
Downs and Liben (1991) studied college students’ ability to
anticipate the form of a shadow cast by a shape rotated to
various angles.
Figure 5B in: Downs, Roger M. and Lynn S. Liben (1991) The Development of Expertise in Geography: A CognitiveDevelopmental Approach to Geographic Education. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(2), pp.304-327.
They found that college students performance on projective tasks
is poor when the shapes are three dimensional.
Figure 2 in: Merriwether, Ann M. and Lynn S. Liben (1997) Adults’ Failures on Euclidean and Projective Spatial Tasks:
Implications for Characterizing Spatial Cognition. Journal of Adult Development, Vol. 4, No. 2.
Performance on spatial tasks shows wide person to person variation.
Students who struggle with typical verbally-demanding
academic tasks may excel on spatially-demanding tasks.
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~kastens/curriculum/maptutorial/01_About_Spatial_Thinking/09a_SpatialvsVerbal.html
Spatial thinking
can be improved
through instruction
and practice.
Computer-supported instructional activities to foster spatial thinking
in Earth Sciences, developed by Steve Reynolds
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~kastens/curriculum/maptutorial/04_3-D_Phenomena/3-D_05a.html
Spatial Thinking in
Earth System Science
• Teachers need to know that spatial thinking is pervasive in
Earth & Environmental Sciences
• Teachers need to understand that performance on spatial
tasks:
• differs widely among individuals
• does not necessarily correlate with other academic
strengths,
• can be improved with instruction and practice.
• Teachers need to be able to design, select, and evaluate
student activities that develop and assess spatial thinking.
Professional Development to Improve the Spatial
Thinking of Earth Science Teachers and Students
http://earth2class.org/site/educationalresources/spatial-thinking/
GEO10-34994
•
Analyze released New York State Earth Science
Regents exam items for spatial thinking:
• What is abundant?
• What is hard?
•
Pilot and evaluate a professional development program
for Earth Science teachers piggy-backing on Earth2class
•
Expand spatial thinking professional development
statewide and nationwide, leveraging move towards
data-driven PD (?)
“Finding the Spatial” in
Earth Science Regents Course
You won’t find
much
spatialness here
New York Earth Science Reference Tables
Lots of
spatialness here
16 page booklet
“Finding the Spatial” in
Earth Science Regents Exams
• Began with exploration of RES Core Curriculum, exams,
and practices
• Gradual identification of sub-categories wrt RES:
• Spatial concepts
• Spatial representations
• Spatial skills
• Coded 12 exams: 2008-2011
Spatial thinking is abundant in
Regents Earth Science Exam
Analyses revealed “spatialness” can be identified in:
 63.6 % of all questions
 63.3 % of the multiple choice questions
 64.0 % of the constructed response questions
Number of Spatial Items
Total items (out of 84 or 85)
Multiple choice items (out of 50)
Constructed response
items (out of 34 or 35)
Frequency of Spatial Concepts
Configuration (SC-Cn)
…relative position of two or
more objects, attributes or
phenomena…
Frequency of Spatial Representations
Map (SR-Mp)
Timeline -> Bedrock geology map -> Landscape regions map
Frequency of Spatial Skills
Mental animation (SS-MA)
Student needs to or would benefit
from envisioning that objects are
moving or deforming and how
they are moving or deforming…
Difficulty of spatial versus non-spatial items
• 26 school districts in
one BOCES region
• One exam (June 2010)
Mean of Spatial items =
66% correct
Mean of Non-spatial items =
73% correct
12 out of the 13
hardest items are
spatial
Difficulty of spatial versus non-spatial categories
• Hardest Spatial Concepts
• Trajectory (14 percentage points worse than average spatial item)
• Gradient (5 points worse)
• Hardest Spatial Representation
• Solar System (9 points worse)
• Hardest Spatial Skills
• Describe spatial phenomena (5 points worse)
• Perspective taking (4 points worse)
Hard Spatial Item (44.9% correct)
SC: Trajectory
SC: Motion
SC: Position
SC: Configuration
SR: Solar System
SR: Photograph
SS: Perspective taking
SS: Mental animation
SS: Representational
Correspond
Hard Spatial Item (44.0% correct)
Allowed answers:
— Heat and pressure increase from B to C.
— Regional metamorphism is greatest at C.
— different grades of metamorphism
SC: Gradient
SC: Position
SC: Configuration
SR: Profile
SS: Describe
Easy Spatial Item (93.1% correct)
SC: Position
SR: Map
SS: Representational
Correspondence
Earth Science
Reference Tables
Conclusions
• A wide range of spatial concepts, spatial
representations, and spatial skills are being assessed
on the Earth Science Regents.
• Configuration, position, motion and direction are the
most frequently assessed spatial concepts.
• Mental animation and representational
correspondence are the most frequently assessed
spatial skills.
• Earth Science Reference Tables enable more
challenging questions using spatial representations,
especially maps & profiles
• Spatial questions are more difficult than nonspatial questions for students.
• Questions involving gradient, trajectory, and solar
system diagrams are the most difficult (in a limited
data set)
Next Steps
Utilize: Pilot project on
professional development
on spatial thinking for
Earth Science teachers
http://earth2class.org/site/educational
-resources/spatial-thinking/
Dream: Expand spatial thinking
professional development
statewide and nationwide,
leveraging movement towards
“data-driven” PD.
Sample Activities to Develop Spatial
Thinking in RES
• “Professional Development to Improve the
Spatial Thinking of Earth Science Teachers and
Students”
Supported by National Science Foundation GEO1034994
http://earth2class.org/site/educationalresources/spatial-thinking/
• michael@earth2class.org