Upload
peregrine-carpenter
View
218
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Steve CoxonEditorial assistant,
Journal for the Education of the GiftedPh.D. Student,
The College of William and Mary’sCenter for Gifted Education
• http://stevecoxon.com • http://cfge.wm.edu/
Activities to Challenge the Spatially Gifted
What is spatial ability?
Spatial ability is a construct that characterizes a human difference in “the ability to generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images”
(Lohman, 1994, p. 1000, as quoted in Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009).
Why does spatial ability matter?
• High spatial ability is predictive of STEM success (Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007)
• Innovations from STEM fields improve our quality of life and are responsible for the majority of economic growth in the U.S. (National Academy of Education, 2009),
• There is an ever-increasing need for highly-educated people capable of STEM innovation (Shea, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2001; Snow, 1999; Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007).
Why does spatial ability matter?
• While employers expect to hire 2.5 million STEM workers between 2004 and 2014 (Terrell, 2007), there is a national shortage of students graduating from institutions of higher education with degrees in many important STEM fields (American Competitiveness Initiative, 2006).
• People in STEM fields earned about 70% more than the U. S. average in 2005 (Terrell, 2007),
Need for Challenging theSpatially Gifted
• Students with spatial gifts are neglected in school curricula and instruction and thus are rarely challenged in their talent area (Silverman, 2005; Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007).
Need for Challenging theSpatially Gifted
• Students with spatial gifts tend to be undereducated and underemployed as adults compared to students with similar gifts in mathematical and verbal areas (Mann, 2006).
• Spatially gifted students tend to have lower educational aspirations and less motivation to perform than gifted math students (Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007).
Typical school subjects involving spatial ability
• Geometry
• Geography
• Physics
• Chemistry
Some occupations involving spatial ability
• The visual and performing arts• Design (from graphic to industrial)• Engineering• Surgery• Dentistry• Computer science• Surveying and cartography• Mechanics• Architecture• Physical sciences• Robotics(Shea, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2001; Snow, 1999; Wai, et al.,
2009; Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007)
Today’s Menu
Craft stick and binder clip towers
Google Maps
LEGO WeDo robotics
• Take fifteen minutes to build the tallest freestanding tower that you can.
• You have 30 sticks and 15 small binder clips. You may not use any other items.
• You may not break sticks or dismantle clips.
• Two to three feet is a good start.
What processes did this building activity require?
Google Maps
LEGO WeDo
LEGO WeDo
• Aimed at 6-9-year-olds to engineer and program
• Comes with step-by-step directions for a number of models, but, like other LEGO products, has unlimited room for creative building
• Can be tied in with other subjects, especially science
• Similar to NXT, but significantly scaled down for a younger user
• One motor, two sensors: tilt and motion• Now a part of the Junior FIRST LEGO League
WeDo demonstration
Resources• http://www.childrensengineering.com/ (based in
Richmond, hosts an annual conference in February)
• http://www.legoeducation.us/sharedimages/resources/WeDo%20User's%20Guide.pdf (a free, 41 page teacher’s guide to LEGO WeDo)
• http://maps.google.com/ • http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/index.html
(GIS for schools)• http://makezine.com/ and http://
www.instructables.com/ (two Great sites for building just about anything)
* http://www.academicearth.org/ (free, online video classes from leading universities)
“Ninety-nine percent of the discoveries are made by one percent of the scientists.”
-Julius Axelrod (as cited in NAS, 2005, p. ix)