Reasoning about Spatial Relations and Distributions: Supporting STEM Learning in Early Adolescence

空间思维与STEM学科的成功有关。然而，现有的研究主要集中在小范围的空间技能上，比如心理上旋转物体。迫切需要研究导航和测绘等大尺度空间技能如何与STEM的成功有关，特别是在儿童后期和青春期早期的形成期。这个项目将开发、实施和评估一套新的工具，并将收集关于空间关系推理和早期STEM教学的新知识。研究小组将评估几种虚拟导航措施，以了解它们与儿童现实生活导航的关系，他们将开发并验证一种衡量中学生地理和空间思维的评估工具，他们将教授为期一周的STEM主题研讨会，研究理解和学习如何与空间技能相关，以及这些技能是否随着教学而提高。这个项目的发现将为这个年龄段的STEM提供信息和加强指导。该项目得到了NSF的EDU核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。在基本、广泛和持久的关键领域进行投资：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大对STEM的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目研究空间技能和推理及其与儿童后期和青春期早期STEM教育的相关性，这是STEM领域有用测绘技能的关键形成期。该项目将在三个相关的工作流程中进行。首先，研究人员将开发和验证评估措施，以评估儿童后期和青春期早期的导航、地图使用以及地理思维和推理。他们将获得关于现有虚拟环境范例的可靠性信息，评估从各种虚拟大规模测量得出的数据如何比较，验证虚拟世界中的导航评估与现实生活中的导航技能，并审查各种导航措施与地图阅读技能测试的关系。他们将开发并验证一种评估工具，衡量中学生的地理和空间视角使用情况。这些项目将根据国家教育进步评估(NAEP)发布的8年级地理评估问题开发，并使用专家评分和项目反应理论(IRT)统计来检查结构相关性。该仪器将衡量中学生观察和理解信息、解释地理模式和过程、分析地理空间问题并制定适当的解决方案和替代方案以及使用不同地理工具和技能的能力。其次，研究小组将设计和提炼这些测量方法，以研究中学生大小空间技能之间的关系。最后，该团队将通过教授需要考虑分布和有序关系的STEM主题的为期一周的单元，确定大规模空间技能与STEM主题的空间导向学习结果之间的关系。他们将研究在讲习班期间评估的青少年大小尺度空间技能与其地理空间分析和地理空间推理技能之间的关系，以了解在大小尺度空间基线表现较好的学生在空间讲习班上是否也有更好的参与度和表现，以及这些技能如何改善所提供的指导。这些活动将是多学科的，涉及基于地理参考地理空间数据分析的决策。这项工作将扩大对空间技能和STEM之间关系的理解，以涵盖关于空间分布的推理，这是科学教育和发现中的一个重要组成部分。它还将建立在关于大尺度和小尺度空间能力之间关系的文献的基础上，并将对儿童后期和青春期早期大尺度和小尺度空间技能之间的发展联系提供见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Spatial thinking is related to success in STEM disciplines. However, existing research has largely focused on small-scale spatial skills, such as mentally rotating objects. There is a critical need for research on how large-scale spatial skills, such as navigation and mapping, are related to success in STEM success, especially in the formative period of late childhood and early adolescence. This project will develop, implement, and evaluate a set of new tools and will gather new knowledge regarding reasoning about spatial relations and early STEM instruction. The research team will evaluate several virtual navigation measures to understand how they relate to real-life navigation for children, they will develop and validate an assessment instrument that measures geographic and spatial thinking in middle schoolers, and they will teach weeklong workshops on STEM topics and examine how comprehension and learning are related to the spatial skills, and whether these skills improve with instruction. Findings from this project will inform and enhance instruction in STEM at this age. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This project studies spatial skills and reasoning and their relevance for STEM education in late childhood and early adolescence, which is a crucial formative period for mapping skills useful in STEM fields. The project will be conducted in three related streams of work. First, the researchers will develop and validate assessment measures to evaluate navigation, map use and geographic thinking and reasoning in late childhood and early adolescence. They will obtain reliability information on existing virtual environment paradigms, evaluate how data derived from various virtual large-scale measures compare, validate assessments of navigation in a virtual world against real-life navigation skills, and examine the relations of the various navigation measures to a test of map reading skills. They will develop and validate an assessment instrument that measures geographic and spatial perspective use in middle schoolers. The items will be developed based on released National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) geography assessment questions for 8th grade and examined for construct relevance using expert ratings and Item Response Theory (IRT) statistics. The instrument will measure the ability of middle schoolers to observe and comprehend information, to explain geographic patterns and processes, to analyze geospatial problems and formulate appropriate solutions and alternatives, and to make use of different geographic tools and skills. Second, the research team will devise and refine these measures to study relations among large- and small-scale spatial skills in middle school children. Lastly, the team will determine how large-scale spatial skills relate to spatially oriented learning outcomes concerning STEM topics by teaching weeklong units on STEM topics that require thinking about distributions and ordered relations. They will look at the relationship between adolescents' large- and small-scale spatial skills and their geospatial analysis and geospatial reasoning skills assessed during the workshops to understand if students who have better baseline large- and small-scale spatial performance also have better engagement and performance in spatial workshops and how the skills improve given instruction. The activities will be multi-disciplinary and involve decision-making based on the analysis of georeferenced geospatial data. This work will broaden the understanding of the relation between spatial skills and STEM to encompass reasoning about spatial distributions, an essential component in scientific education and discovery. It will also build on the literature on the relationship between large- and small-scale spatial ability and will provide insights into the developmental linkages between large- and small-scale spatial skills for late childhood and early adolescence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.