Spatial Visualization

Spatial visualization materials including play-dough and paper cut-outs

Spatial visualization is the study of two- and three-dimensional objects and the practice of mental manipulation of objects. Spatial visualization skills are important in a range of subjects and activities like mathematics, physics, engineering, art and sports!

Spatial visualization is an important skill for students and professionals within the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Not only is it useful for engineering drawings, but it is also highly correlated with success in engineering and has been shown to be a learned skill. It is increasingly important, therefore, to incorporate spatial visualization learning into STEM curricula.

Spatial Visualization Workshops

We developed a series of 7 workshops (2 hours each) to develop spatial visualization skills of our undergraduate engineering students.

Spatial Visualization Workshop Materials
Spatial Visualization Research

These workshops were created when Integrated Design Engineering was Engineering Plus ("e+"). The work is still valuable, so we have made the curriculum available despite its out-of-date branding.

Workshop One

Workshop 2

Workshop 3

Workshop 4

Workshop 5

Workshop 6

Workshop 7

Researchers in the field of engineering education have studied the skill of spatial visualization. These studies have shown the large discrepancies among undergraduate engineering students while finding large correlations between high spatial visualization skills and success in engineering professions. Here are several references to support this work:

J. L. Segil, J. F. Sullivan, J. Y. Tsai, D. T. Reamon, and M. H. Forbes, “Investigation of spatial visualization skills across world regions,” in 2017 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2017, pp. 1–5.
J. L. Segil, J. F. Sullivan, B. A. Myers, D. T. Reamon, and M. H. Forbes, “Analysis of multi-modal spatial visualization workshop intervention across gender, nationality, and other engineering student demographics,” in 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016, pp. 1–5.
J. L. Segil, B. A. Myers, J. F. S. Ph.D, and D. T. Reamon, “Efficacy of Various Spatial Visualization Implementation Approaches in a First-year Engineering Projects Course,” presented at the 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2015, pp. 26.590.1–26.590.8.
S. Sorby, B. Casey, N. Veurink, and A. Dulaney, “The role of spatial training in improving spatial and calculus performance in engineering students,” Learning and Individual Differences, vol. 26, pp. 20–29, Aug. 2013.
S. A. Sorby and B. J. Baartmans, “The Development and Assessment of a Course for Enhancing the 3-D Spatial Visualization Skills of First Year Engineering Students,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 89, no. 3, pp. 301–307, Jul. 2000.

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