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Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11019.html SPATIAL THINKING IN EVERYDAY LIFE, AT WORK, AND IN SCIENCE 55 information in functional ways. Architects slice space into two-dimensional planes. Air traffic controllers slice space into two-dimensional layers and time into slices. Researchers have investigated how air traffic controllers think about space and time in order to create display systems that conform to the process of spatial thinking (Wickens, 1992, 1998; Wickens and Mayor, 1997). Air traffic controllers think about space as an ordered stack of twodimensional layers varying in altitude and can deal with each layer separately, turning a threedimensional task into a series of two-dimensional tasks. This way of thinking has affected the design of visual support systems for air traffic controllers and the way in which flows of incoming and departing aircraft are organized. Aircraft are confined to altitude layers as a function of flight distance and destination. There are complex interactions between the ways in which the mind structures a multifaceted problem and the way in which we design cognitive tools and support systems to facilitate performance. Earlier, we observed that one hallmark of an experienced architect is the ability to make behavioral or functional inferences from structural spatial information. This ability characterizes expertise in other domains as well. Experts at mechanical thinking, for example, can “see” how a device will behave from its structure (Heiser and Tversky, submitted). They can look at the structure of a bicycle pump or car brake or pulley system and anticipate its operation, understanding how parts move and affect each other to produce desired outcomes. Novices or people low in spatial ability can also understand the structural relations among the parts of a device, but they have difficulty anticipating its behavior or function. Teaching this spatial thinking skill is part of the process of turning novices into experts in everyday life, in the workplace, and in science. 3.4 SPATIAL THINKING IN SCIENCE The effectiveness of nonverbal processes of mental imagery and spatial visualization . . . can be explained, at least in part, by reference to the following interrelated aspects of such processes: their private and therefore not socially, conventionally, or institutionally controlled nature; their richly concrete and isomorphic structure; their engagement of highly developed, innate mechanisms of spatial intuition; and their direct emotional impact. (Shepard, 1988, p. 174) Spatial thinking is deeply implicated in the conduct of science. This is not to argue that science can only be done by means of spatial thinking. It is to argue that many classic discoveries and everyday procedures of science draw extensively on the processes of spatial thinking. The <strong>Executive</strong> <strong>Summary</strong> describes the role of spatial thinking in one of the great discoveries in modern science, Crick and Watson’s double-helix model of the structure of DNA in biochemistry. Chapter 1 illustrates the role of spatial thinking in epidemiology. Here, the committee focuses on spatial thinking in astronomy, geoscience, and geography. These sciences have many things in common. They are Earth-centric. They are empirical sciences that are predominantly nonexperimental in character, relying on interpretation of hard-won observations of existing situations. In recent decades, each has experienced floods of data from newly developed observational technologies: sensors (such as seismographs and high-resolution hydrophones), sampling devices (such as deep sea and ice core drilling technologies), satellites (including multispectral imagery and global positioning systems [GPS]), and platforms (such as the Hubble telescope and the Alvin submersible). Astronomy, geoscience, and geography have gone from being data impoverished to data enriched, if not data overwhelmed, placing a premium on the ability to manage and interpret data. At the same time, each has developed procedures to deal with data problems: generalization to cope with overspecificity and detail; extrapolation and interpolation to deal with missing data; correction procedures to deal with error and uncertainty. Because of the inherently spatial nature of their Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11019.html 56 LEARNING TO THINK SPATIALLY concerns, they have been at the forefront of developing and practicing spatial thinking through the use of root metaphors (e.g., maps), analytic techniques (e.g., trend surface analysis), and representational systems (e.g., spectral diagrams). They show similar sensitivities to the effects of spatial scale and the need for multiscalar analyses, to interrelationships between space and time, to the importance of spatial context, and to the needs for visualization and spatialization (see Chapters 2 and 8). Four case studies are presented here. The first, from astronomy, is a long-term, historical account of the development of one approach to spatial thinking, astrophysical spatialization, within a discipline. The second, from geoscience, contrasts spatial thinking from two perspectives, that of an expert practicing the craft and that of a novice learning the craft. The third and fourth case studies focus on two scientists whose work exemplifies the power of spatial thinking. The third describes the work of Marie Tharp, a marine geologist, who created a pioneering series of seafloor maps. The last case study analyzes the work of Walter Christaller, a geographer who developed central place theory. The focus in each case study is the way in which spatial thinking is integral to the work of scientists and therefore to scientific discovery and progress. 3.5 SPATIAL THINKING IN ASTRONOMY 3.5.1 From the Celestial Sphere to the Structure of the Universe The process of moving from the human wonder at the glory of the night sky to a scientific understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe is a remarkable story, made possible to a significant degree by insights and inferences generated by spatial thinkers. The fundamental problem in astronomy is that it has a limited set of basic measurements from which to work. The measurements are simple. At any position in the sky, and at a particular time and location, we can measure the amount of energy flowing toward the observer as a function of wavelength. As the ancients looked at the sky through the limited window of the visible spectrum, they saw the refracted and reflected light of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets. The challenge was to make sense of the colors, patterns, movements, and changes. The basic intellectual structure was spatial, built on primitives and concepts that could be derived from those primitives (this analysis of astronomical primitives is based on Golledge’s 1995 and 2002 articles on geographic primitives). In the sky, they saw objects at particular locations. Those objects were of varying brightness, now referred to as differing relative magnitudes. They gave the brighter of these objects names, labeling, and noticed how the appearance of the sky changed systematically with time. In passing, it is interesting to note that several of our basic time measurements—days, months, and years—are tied to observations of the sky, and that one of the basic functions of astronomers from ancient times until the late twentieth century was time keeping. The ancients used other spatial concepts to describe the objects they saw on the celestial sphere. Very early on they recognized that several objects moved against the background of the stars, the planets, the Moon, and the Sun. Therefore, they employed concepts such as relative direction and orientation. They used another fundamental spatial concept, frame of reference, viewing the “fixed” stars as a background against which other objects moved in terms of relative motion. They also saw patterns of stars or constellations in the sky. 3.5.2 The Structure and Evolution of the Universe While it is interesting to discuss the relative sophistication of the ancient observations, particularly those associated with time keeping, there are many ways to illustrate the fundamental role of spatial thinking in astronomy. Here the focus is on the astronomical process of the spatialization of Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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