Communications of the ACM
Ipad App Teaches Students Key Skill For Success in Math, Science, Engineering
A new app for the iPad is designed to help students learn spatial visualization.
Credit: UCSD News
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers have developed an iPad app designed to help students learn spatial visualization, which is important for doing well in science, math, and engineering.
The app was inspired by Ohio State University professor Sheryl A. Sorby, who developed a course on spatial visualization that taught students to become better at visualizing objects in three dimensions.
"With our iPad app, users can rotate 3D objects with their fingertip to learn how they look from different perspectives," says UCSD's Nate Delson.
The app includes a sketch feature, which enables users to draw 3D shapes on a two-dimensional grid, and has an immediate feedback feature that tells users whether their sketches are correct.
The researchers tested the app on 23 high school students enrolled in a summer residential science outreach program at UCSD. Eleven of the students struggled with spatial visualization at first, but after working with the app for about three weeks, more than half of that group reached a level where they no longer needed training.
The researchers expect that initially colleges will adopt the app, but they believe it also could be used in K-12 classes, enabling students to gain spatial visualization skills at a younger age.
From UCSD News (CA)
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