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Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center
NSF Science of Learning Center
National Science Foundation

Geoscience Education

Spatial skill is known to be a significant predictor of success in the STEM disciplines. This working group is focused on geoscience education, a heavily spatial STEM subject that provides an excellent opportunity for investigating mature learners (college students). This group considers the following broad questions: (1) What spatial relationships are used by geoscientists in their research? (2) How do they encode those relations? (3) How do they learn those relations?

Several geoscience educators are involved in this working group, and their expertise is helping us understand what spatial relations are important for the field, and hence important for students to learn. Of particular interest are spatial skills that are hard for students to learn. We will study the nature of these skills in experts to help understand how best to alter current educational practices. The spatial structures of geology influence the way geoscientists think about spatial problems. This idea informs our fundamental research, using experts as a discovery tool to identify new areas of spatial thinking. As part of our work on who is likely to succeed, and who might need targeted additional support for their spatial thinking, we will develop a battery of tests for geologically relevant spatial skills.

The aims of the Geoscience Working Group include:

  1. To understand the nature and roles of spatial knowledge in geoscience expertise.
  2. To understand how geoscience education might be improved.

Point of Contact:

Thomas Shipley

Relevant Background Publications

  • ♦more info coming
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SILC NEWS/UPDATES

Today is March 10, 2010

NEW RELEASE:
CogSketch v1.19 (3/10/2010)
(download here)

see SILC in the press

Read our latest updates and incoming news below or for SILC in the press go to our Press Room (click on PRESS ROOM icon above).

3/4/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Hilary Barth, Sue Becker, Nathan Greenauer, Toru Ishikawa, Shaun P. Vecera, Tom verguts and Christoph Weidemann.

3/1/2010
Our March Showcase is on-line: The Role of Parent Gesture In Children's Spatial Language Development [Erica Cartmill, Shannon M. Pruden Dick, Susan C. Levine, Susan Goldin-Meadow].

2/18/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Kevin Mulqueeny.

2/12/2010
Job opening for a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, University of Chicago.

2/12/2010
New publication by our SILC Members: Jee, B. D., Uttal, D. H., Gentner, D., Manduca, C., Shipley, T., Sageman, B., Ormand, C. J., & Tikoff, B. (2010). Analogical thinking in geoscience education.

2/10/2010
Note: Full paper submission deadline [in Calls section on Meetings page] for Spatial Cognition 2010 has been changed to: February 21, 2010.

2/9/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Ed Golob and Kelly McCormick.

2/5/2010
Please, note that we will soon be implementing a database for the Bibliography page. Due to this we are only up-dating the database.

2/5/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Michael Brown.

2/1/2010
Our February Showcase is on-line: Playful Learning: Exploring the Role of Dialogic Inquiry and Exploration in Children's Developing Shape Concepts [Kelly R. Fisher, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Nora Newcombe].

1/27/2010
Read the current Press on SILC-generated research: Female teachers' math anxiety affects girls' math achievement by Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez and Susan C. Levine.

1/7/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Roy Ruddle.

1/6/2010
The January SILC Showcase is now on-line: Facilitation of spatial skills necessary in performing geologic transformations [Ilyse Resnick, Temple University; Thomas Shipley, Temple University; Cathryn Manduca, Carleton College; and Nora Newcombe, Temple University].

12/21/2009
Updates were made to our CfP/Conferences page and Jobs page.

12/21/2009
Links were fixed under the sketch inquiry, Help Us Gather Sketches, on our homepage. Please, note that if you ever encounter a link that does not work, please send it to the attention of Jenn Stedillie, webmaster for this site:  

12/21/2009
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Elena Andonova, Kirsten Butcher, Liz Chrastil, Lisa Douglas & Ian Fogarty.

12/02/2009
The December SILC Showcase is now on-line: Spatial categories across languages [Naveen Khetarpal, University of Chicago; Asifa Majid, Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen; Terry Regier, University of California, Berkeley].

Read about past SILC News in our Archive.