Let’s Learn about Spatial Viz!
Students practice spatial visualization by building 3-D objects from toy cubes and drawing them two-dimensionally on isometric paper.
Spatial visualization is the study of two- and three-dimensional objects and the practice of mental manipulation of objects. Spatial visualization skills are important in a range of subjects and activities like mathematics, physics, engineering, art and sports! In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of spatial visualization and measure their spatial visualization skills by taking the provided 12-question quiz. Following the lesson, students complete the four associated spatial visualization activities and then re-take the quiz to see how much their spatial visualization skills have improved.
Spatial visualization is an important skill for students and professionals within the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Not only is it useful for engineering drawings, but it is also highly correlated with success in engineering (Sorby, 2009) and has been shown to be a learned skill. It is increasingly important, therefore, to incorporate spatial visualization learning into STEM curricula.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Describe spatial visualization.
- List the benefits of spatial visualization in STEM-related fields.
- Draw 3-D objects two-dimensionally.