Principal Investigator: Qi Dunsworth, Center for Teaching Initiatives
Co-principal investigator: Dean Lewis, Mechanical Engineering
Collaborators: Richard Gosnell (Physics), Peter Ingram (Mechanical Engineering), Tracy Halmi (Chemistry)
Funded by: Teaching Transformation and Innovation grant 2022, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
Spatial thinking skills are critical to students’ academic success. In engineering and science fields, visualizing an object or the structure of an abstract problem is the essential first step. The lack of spatial thinking skills is a major factor in STEM attrition. Fortunately, these skills can be improved through deliberate practice. We propose to screen the spatial thinking skills of all students in a first-year Introduction to Engineering Design class and assign spatial thinking practice activities. Students will be required to complete simple-to-complex practice modules in Spatial Vis, an app designed for hand drawing on smart devices. Snap cubes will also be given to students as hands-on learning aids. Complex rotation problems will be coached in lab sessions. The impact of deliberate practice will be assessed by comparing the pre- and post-test scores using an established quiz instrument. Student progress in the practice modules collected by the app will be analyzed.
