Spatial thinking is ubiquitous in design. Design education across all age groups encompasses a range of spatially challenging activities, such as forming and modifying mental representations of ideas, and visualizing the scenarios of design prototypes being used. While extensive research has examined the cognitive processes of spatial thinking and their relationships to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the specific spatial thinking processes needed for open-ended problems, which may differ from those assessed in close-ended, analytical spatial tasks. To address this gap, we used educational design-based research to develop a nature-inspired, design-by-analogy project and investigate the spatial thinking processes of young, novice designers. 16 children from an international school in the Netherlands participated in this five-week design project. Multimodal evidence from classroom recordings and children’s design works were triangulated to offer insight into the key spatial thinking processes involved in their creation of nature-inspired, analogy-based design prototypes. Our results revealed spatial thinking processes that might not align with those assessed in conventional spatial tests and may be unique to design or open-ended problem-solving. These processes include abstracting spatial features to infer form-function relationships, retrieving a range of relevant visual information from memory, developing multiple possible analogical matches based on spatial features and relationships, elaborating and iterating on the design concepts and representations to make creative and suitable solutions for the design challenge, as well as visualizing design prototypes in practical usage scenarios. By highlighting the nuanced differences between spatial thinking in open-ended, divergent thinking tasks and conventional spatial tasks that demand single correct solutions, our research contributes to a deeper understanding of how children utilize spatial thinking in design and open-ended problem-solving contexts. Furthermore, this case study offers practical implications for scaffolding children's analogical reasoning and nurturing their spatial thinking in design education.

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Encoding intangible data variables with visual, spatial, and physical properties demands a high level of spatial reasoning. The ability to reason spatially is widely deemed critical to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning. While much research has explored the relationship between learning with visualizations and spatial skills development, little is known about how children use their spatial reasoning in constructing tangible visualizations. This work-in-progress investigates how data physicalization activities, organized within a Design module in primary classrooms in the Netherlands, provide a window to understanding children’s spatial reasoning about data. Based on preliminary analysis, we identify six indicators of children’s spatial reasoning as observed in their constructing processes and artifacts. Most children in the study used tangible materials of varied sizes, curated meaningful spatial arrangements, and employed different unitizing methods to encode numerical data with spatial properties. Some children adjusted the sizes, units, or spatial arrangement to refine their tangible visualizations, considered the pros and cons of two- and three-dimensional forms of presentation, and made creative use of spatial shapes. In summary, this case study offers insights into children’s use of spatial reasoning in data physicalization creation and practical implications for situating data physicalization activities in formal learning environments.

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Understanding and effectively using visual representations is important to learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Various techniques to visualize information, such as two- and three-dimensional graphs, diagrams, and models, not only expand our capacity to work with different types of information but also actively recruit our visual–spatial thinking. Data physicalization is emerging as a beginner-friendly approach to construct information visualization. Mapping intangible data onto tangible artifacts that possess visual, spatial, and physical properties demands an interplay of spatial thinking and hands-on manipulation. Much existing literature has explored using formatted infographics to aid learning and spatial thinking development. However, there is limited insight into how children may leverage their spatial thinking to create information visualizations, particularly tangible ones. This case study documented the data physicalization activities organized in two design classrooms of an international school in Netherlands, with 37 children aged 11–12. Seven themes relevant to spatial thinking were identified from multimodal evidence gathered from the data physicalization artifacts, classroom videos and recordings of children’s making process, and semi-structured interviews with children. Our findings suggested that these children generated various ideas to create visual–spatial forms for data with the materials at hand, such as mapping quantities to tangible materials of different sizes, using spatial ordinal arrangement, and unitizing materials to set visual parameters. Meanwhile, they evaluated and adjusted the visual–spatial properties of these materials according to the numerical data they had, crafting feasibility, and others’ spatial perspectives. What was particularly interesting in our findings was children’s iteration on their visual–spatial understandings of the intangible numerical values and the tangible materials throughout the embodied making processes. Overall, this study illustrated the different types of spatial thinking children applied to create their data physicalizations and offered insights into how embodied experiences accompanying the open-ended visualization challenge allowed children to explore and construct spatial understandings.@en

Empirical interdisciplinary research has explored the role of spatial ability in STEM learning and achievement. While most of this research indicates that fostering spatial thinking in educational contexts has the potential to positively impact students’ enrollment and performance in STEM subjects, there is less agreement on the best approach to do so. This article provides an overview of various types of effective spatial interventions and practices in formal or informal educational contexts, including targeted training of STEM-relevant spatial skills, spatialized curricula embedded in schools, integrated STEM practices addressing students’ use of spatial skills, and spatial activities in informal STEM education. Gender and socio-economic status of students – two variables that have been found to moderate the relationship between students’ spatial ability and their STEM performance – are also discussed in this article. Drawing on a wide spectrum of perspectives on situating spatial ability research in STEM education contexts, this article underscores the need for further inquiry into opportunities for developing K-12 students’ spatial ability through integrated and informal STEM practices. This article proposes a conjecture that the relationship between developing students’ spatial ability and enhancing their abilities to solve spatially complex STEM problems is bidirectional. Recommendations for future research are made on lingering questions about the effect of interventions, untapped resources for spatial ability training in formal and informal STEM education, and educational strategies for developing students’ spatial ability in authentic learning environments.

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Spatial thinking is embedded in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning. Design and Technology education inherently encompasses a wide range of spatial activities, such as mentally transforming objects and materials to form representations of design ideas, visually communicating ideas, and creating 2D and 3D design artifacts. Among different design topics, biomimicry offers a unique avenue for pupils to recognize and analyze forms and structures in nature. Mapping out the analogical links between nature’s strategies to design strategies, pupils can potentially exercise their spatial thinking while gaining inspiration to solve human design challenges. This study is one of the first to highlight opportunities for supporting primary school pupils’ spatial thinking through a biomimicry design project. Embracing the methodology of educational design-based research, we tested out and iterated on this design project with teacher’s input and authentic classroom feedback. Data are gathered from sixteen 11- to 12-year-olds at an international school in the Netherlands. Classroom videos and audios, pupils’ notes, 2D and 3D design artifacts, formative assessment, semi-structured interviews with pupils, and the pre- and post-project spatial test triangulate evidence for pupils' spatial thinking in this project. This case study contributes to the growing theories of integrating spatial training in primary curriculums and offers empirically-grounded suggestions for the design and cultivation of future spatialized learning ecologies.@en