The People’s Guide to

Spatial Thinking
Diana Stuart Sinton
with Sarah Bednarz, Phil Gersmehl, Robert Kolvoord,
and David Uttal

NATIONA L COUNCIL FOR GEOGR A PHIC EDUCATION

WASHINGTON DC
 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION
1145 17 TH Street, NW, Room 7620
Washington, DC 20036

Copyright © 2013 Diana Stuart Sinton. All rights reserved.

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Design by Zach Dulli

Printed in the United States of America
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-1-884136-21-4
This book is for anyone who has ever asked, “Can you explain spatial thinking to me?”
Got an Idea for a Spatial Thinking
Bumper Sticker?
What could you say about spatial thinking in a short phrase, if you were going to
make a bumper sticker for a car, or a postcard, or a saying on a t-shirt?
Here are some ideas:

• Spatial thinking – the why of where

• Spatial thinking – it’s not rocket science, but just try rocket science without it

• Spatial thinking – don’t spit into the wind

• Spatial thinking – you can’t leave home without it

• Spatial thinking – why you are where you are

• Spatial thinking – mapping a difference

• Spatial thinking – so you’re no longer Lost in Space

• Spatial thinking – both here and there

• Spatial thinking – what’s behind the map

• Spatial thinking – it’s near, it’s far, it’s wherever you are

• Spatial thinking – mapping sense of the world

• Spatial thinking – thinking outside the box

• Spatial thinking – place, space, and so much more

• Spatial thinking – putting history in its place

• Spatial thinking – building bridges across the curriculum

If you think of another to share with us, please send it to [email protected].

Content
Chapter 1. Introduction and Background 11

Chapter 2. Geography of Life Spaces 14

Chapter 3. Geographies of Physical and Social Space 18

Chapter 4. Geography of Intellectual Space 22

Chapter 5. The Process of Spatial Thinking 26

Chapter 6. Spatial Representations 31

Chapter 7. Transforming Representations and Processes of Reasoning 34

Chapter 8. Summary: A Brief Time in the Life of a Spatial Thinker 37

Chapter 9. The Way Forward 40

Chapter 10. Frequently Asked Questions 44

Chapter 11. A Note for Geography Educators 66

References and Bibliography 70

About the Authors 78

 Chapter 1

Introduction and
Background
Spatial thinking is pervasive: it is vital across a wide range of domains of
practical and scientific knowledge; yet it is underrecognized, undervalued,
underappreciated, and therefore, underinstructed.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 14

T
hroughout each day we think spatially, sometimes automatically and
intuitively and at other times with more deliberation. We navigate and
way-find, some people for their livelihood as taxi drivers, and all of us
around the rooms of our homes and the streets of our neighborhoods. We
understand things by looking at their spatial patterns, by reading X-rays or
examining slides under a microscope, or by monitoring the formation of storm
clouds in the sky. We distinguish the shape of “g” from “q” and “7” from “L” in
order to read English, or 空间 from 地方 to read Chinese. Shapes and their orientations
also help us distinguish our left from our right shoes as we get dressed. We
design structures, some people by constructing a skyscraper and others by
assembling a multi-tiered wedding cake. We engineer relationships based on
spatial proximity, such as auto mechanics adjusting the distance of electrodes at
the tip of spark plugs, or hosts setting place cards around tables at a banquet.
So, spatial thinking is not just about astronomical space (i.e., the stars and
planets and universe, outer space, the final frontier, etc.), though clearly
physicists and astronomers do think spatially. Nor is it just about geographic
space or where we are on the planet Earth. Rather, we need to recognize that we
think spatially in many dimensions and in many situations, from understanding
a precise sequence of wavelength along the electromagnetic spectrum, to
arranging furniture in a room, to modeling how ocean currents circulate.
Despite the significance of spatial thinking in our lives and the world around
us, it is a topic that is not widely understood and discussed. In 2006, the
National Research Council published a lengthy report titled Learning to Think
Spatially. The report’s authors are scientists and educators who comprised the
Committee on Support for Thinking Spatially, and they represent the fields of

11
12 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

psychology, geography, astronomy and astrophysics, geology, oceanography,

and science education. Apart from their own knowledge, they also compiled
feedback from dozens of others, including engineers, landscape architects, and
many who teach teachers and their students how to learn through maps and
mapping. This diversity reflects the breadth of spatially based sciences and the
degree to which interest in spatial thinking extends.
The Think Spatially report established a clear and compelling rationale for
the value of spatial thinking in society today, detailing ways in which spatial
thinking functions as a common approach to how we move, think, act, and
make decisions throughout our daily lives and work. It recognizes how we apply
spatial thinking to problem solving, especially in the sciences and engineering.
It also describes the complexities of defining spatial thinking and designing
computer or instructional systems to support it.
At the same time, curiosity around spatial thinking is growing through our
use of digital technologies. Many of our cell phones are location-enabled,
meaning they can be used to find or locate places around them, such as a type of
restaurant or a city park, or to find and connect with others whose cell phones
are also location-enabled. We often use geographical information such as our zip
codes to find goods or services on the Internet. The field of digital data
visualization has expanded tremendously, due in part to our need to communicate
about large and complex data sets. Many of the resulting designs rely on our
understanding of spatial relationships to interpret the graphs and diagrams.
The computer age has brought a powerful and versatile tool that helps us
organize and analyze spatial information. It is called GIS (geographic information
systems), and it is used worldwide in emergency management, business, utilities,
transportation, the military, environmental management and conservation,
scientific research, insurance, real estate, law enforcement, urban planning, and
dozens of other areas. Essentially the technology generates “smart” maps in
which geographic locations and their information are connected and analyzed,
so that spatially based problems can be studied and spatially based decisions can
be made. GIS has developed out of the field of geographic information science
(GISc) and can easily connect with the location information that comes from
global positioning systems (GPS) and other global navigation satellite systems
(GNSS).
Most people do not know about GIS, much less geographic information
science. However, they may have used Google Earth (a GIS-like experience, but
not nearly as powerful as a full GIS), or they may have manipulated an interactive
map on a website, or they may have a GPS unit in their car. Geospatial
technologies like these have the potential to support and promote spatial
thinking, and the National Research Council’s report’s subtitle, The Incorporation
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 13

of Geographic Information Science across the K-12 Curriculum, reflects the

motivation to address spatial thinking in education. To date, teaching about
and with GIS has largely been limited to undergraduate and graduate academic
programs, and the technology is not yet widely used in primary or secondary
schools.
Establishing clear connections between the use of GIS and the capacity for
spatial thinking is a richly complex and interesting topic but one that is beyond
the scope of this book. We believe that once the nature and value of spatial
thinking is itself better and more widely understood, it will be easier to open
and maintain a wider series of dialogues that address a rich set of spatially
focused questions involving technologies, learning, and human cognition. New
research agendas will emerge that now can only be imagined.
Meanwhile, the connections between spatial thinking and geographical
thinking are abundantly clear. The recently revised Geography for Life: National
Geography Standards outlines learning objectives via 18 different standards for
students in elementary, middle, and high school in the United States. The
content spans a rich collection of physical and human geographical topics. To
readers unfamiliar with the breadth of the discipline of geography, the collection
can be surprisingly diverse. But upon closer inspection, one thread is common:
geographical learning requires a geographical lens, an approach to inquiry that
is grounded in spatial thinking. Geographers ask the essential question, “Why is
it like this, here?” as they seek to understand past, present, and future human
and environment interactions in all different places.
Thus the aim of this book is to summarize and synthesize our current
understanding of spatial thinking, as described by the thorough National
Research Council report and related research and pedagogical findings, for a
wide and general audience. We do this to expand awareness of spatial thinking
and its value, particularly in education at all levels. We draw directly from the
Thinking Spatially report in order to leverage and extend the research and
synthesis offered by its contributing experts. Our book also provides 1) explicit
connections between the ideas of spatial thinking and the Geography for Life
educational standards; 2) suggestions for a way forward into the educational
arena; and 3) a Frequently Asked Questions section that provides additional
knowledge about how we access and apply spatial thinking in our lives.
 Chapter 2

Geography of
Life Spaces

A BUSY TR AIN STATION AT RUSH HOUR

What do we do in our life that is “spatial”?

Spatial thinking is not unitary in character and operation. It can appear in
many flavors and varieties—some appropriate for one task, some for another.
For example, mental rotation is involved in describing the world as it appears
from another’s point of view, while distinguishing figure from ground is
involved in finding a face in a crowd…Facility in using the components
increases with experience, most obviously expressed in expertise in a knowledge
domain, such as finding tumors in X-rays, inferring the presence of oil-bearing
strata in a geological cross section, or imagining three-dimensional shapes from
two-dimensional architectural drawings.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 40

14
GEOGRAPHY OF LIFE SPACES 15

CARS PARKED PAR ALLEL BALLROOM DANCERS

Spatial thinking is so deeply embedded in the activities of daily life and thought
that it is difficult to disentangle and appreciate its role. We may not even
realize its role, but it is fundamental to many taken-for-granted activities,
underpinning their successful performances and sometimes accounting for their
spectacular failure.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 50

S
patial thinking is a constant and pervasive act in which we all participate,
at times automatically and intuitively and at other times very
methodically and deliberately. This can be better understood by
describing spatial thinking in three of the contexts in which it occurs: the
geographies of our life spaces, our physical and social spaces, and our
intellectual spaces.
Navigating the geography of our life spaces is the most common of all spatial
experiences that humans share. From the moment we arise in the morning we
are moving about an making plans in space, whether we are navigating our
bodies around other people simultaneously preparing breakfasts in a small
kitchen, coordinating with someone to pick him or her up at a particular corner,
knowing how long it will take to reach the school bus stop, parallel parking a
car, or emptying bags full of groceries into a refrigerator.
On a very basic level, each of these acts requires us to evaluate location,
position, or where something or someone is (Where is my body right now with
respect to the people next to me? Where is the designated corner to meet some-
one? Where is the bus stop? Where is there a parking spot near my house? Where
is an empty spot in the refrigerator?). To accomplish these tasks, we use a sense
16 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

A CONDUCTOR LEADING AN ORCHESTR A

of distance to guide us (How far away am I from this other person or from the
counter top? How much travel time must I allow to accomplish all errands and
arrive in time to pick someone up? How close am I to the adjacent cars and the
curb? Will the head of cabbage fit into the vegetable crisper bin?). We may also
have to use our sense of direction to accomplish these tasks (planning the
sequence of errands to avoid backtracking, one-way streets, or traffic jams;
turning the car’s steering wheel in the correct direction to maneuver into a
parking spot). Depending on the context, we may also employ ideas of regions
(in what part of the city or the refrigerator is the thing that I’m looking for?) or
sequences (where along this row of storefronts is the one I want?). These ideas—
distance, direction, regions, and sequence—are some of the basic spatial
concepts we use when we think.
These tasks may involve our seemingly instantaneous calculations of
perceived distances, such as knowing how far we have to move our bodies to
avoid (or achieve) contact with someone. Other times our calculations are done
with much more explicit planning, such as weighing the pros and cons of taking
different driving routes to reach a destination. We perceive both the relative
dimensions of the distances between bodies in a crowded room, or vegetables in
the crisper bin, as well as dimensions that we quantitatively measure and
calculate in larger spaces, such as the distances along a network of roads or
highways. All of these realms represent the life spaces around which we navigate
constantly.
GEOGRAPHY OF LIFE SPACES 17

RUBE GOLDBERG DIAGR AM

Other examples of thinking in space and the geography of our life

spaces:
• Knowing which side of your car the gas tank is located so as to pull up on
the correct side at the pump of a gas station, and knowing how to move to
the correct side if your first try was wrong.
• Arranging tables, plates, cups, silverware, and so forth for a large,
multi-course meal for many people.
• Moving your body in order to kick, hit, or throw a ball while playing sports,
or planning sports, such as diagramming football plays.
• Figuring out how to move a piano down a f light of stairs.
• Fitting your carry-on bag into the overhead bin on an airplane.
• Giving directions to someone on the street or finding your way across an
unfamiliar city.
• Adjusting an office chair to the height and tilt that minimizes
backstrain as you position yourself in front of a desk and reach to use a
computer mouse.
• Understanding how a simple pump works (dispensers of hand-soap in a
bathroom or ketchup in a fast food restaurant).
 Chapter 3

Geography of Physical
and Social Spaces

TIME ZONE MAP

Our conclusions are that similar processes underpin some aspects of spatial
thinking in all domains, whether thinking about tectonic plates, troop
movements in the Civil War, or weather.

-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 95

W
hile we navigate around our daily lives, we exist within a geography of
physical space. Our climate may have distinct seasons or consistent
conditions year-round. Our house may be in an earthquake zone,
and we might secure our furniture to the walls and f loors, or we may live on a
houseboat and be acutely aware of the daily pattern of tides. Clean water might
f low easily into our homes directly through a faucet, or we may be forced to
haul it bucket-by-bucket from a distant source.

18
GEOGRAPHY OF PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SPACES 19

SUNDIAL GENDER-DIVIDED SPACE,

THE WESTERN WALL, JERUSALEM

We think about space when we encounter these physical or natural patterns

and conditions, while in formal settings such as school, or the informal
experiences of our lives, such as travelling. Some people have livelihoods that
drive them to pay particular attention to physical space more than others, such
as New York City bankers who must keep track of time zones as they monitor
markets in Tokyo or Mumbai, or the military as it designs soldiers’ clothing to
facilitate camouf lage in the jungle or the desert. Few of us are storm trackers
who race to find tornadoes, but many of us have seen enough maps of hurricane
tracks with enough frequency to have a general sense of where they begin
(location), in which general paths they typically travel (direction), and how far
their range of damage can extend (distance). When we visualize the track of
Hurricane Katrina heading over the ocean towards New Orleans, or select
tickets for an outdoor performance based on whether the seat will be in the sun
or the shade, or make decisions on where to graze cattle or plant grains based on
soil conditions, we are thinking about physical space.
Though the authors of Learning to Think Spatially did not specifically
address our geography of social spaces, such a topic is relevant here as well. We can
draw parallels between the ways that we think about both physical and social
spaces. For example, natural scientists think about the physical spaces of ocean
currents, mountain ranges, or the ozone layer. Over time they have identified
processes that create and maintain characteristics of those features or
phenomena, often beginning with theories and hypotheses they derived from
observing patterns. “Laws” of physics affect the patterns and processes: for
example, gravity forces heavier objects to fall down or sink. Ocean currents are
driven by colder and denser water sinking, displacing warmer and less dense
water that must then move elsewhere, at global scales, to form prevailing
currents.
20 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

HURRICANE TR ACKS

Social spaces are locations that have social attributes ascribed to them and
are used in certain social ways, like neighborhoods and playgrounds. Like their
counterparts who study physical spaces, social scientists think about social
spaces. Over time they have identified processes that create and maintain
characteristics of those features or phenomena, often beginning with theories
and hypotheses they derived from observing patterns. “Laws” of human
behavior that affect social patterns and processes may be more nuanced, less
predictable, and more dynamic than their natural or physical counterparts.
Only through our subjective, human interpretation can we describe why certain
neighborhoods develop and maintain reputations for attracting certain people,
or understand why and how children on a school playground choose to divide
their “territory,” such as 6th grade girls always hanging out at the benches near
the swing sets, year after year. The physical spaces themselves may or may not
have been designed to attract or repel any social group, but individuals or groups
can take “ownership” and the space can have an enduring association with one
group or another. We think about social spaces when we choose which bars or
nightclubs to visit on a Friday night, remember on which side of the church to
sit at a wedding, or decide in which part of town to look for a new house.
Some people are particularly aware of the dynamics of both social and
physical spaces at specific locations. For example, urban planners must think
not only of how a new east/west–running highway could impact drivers heading
into a rising or setting sun, but what types of neighborhoods will be inf luenced
by the traffic noises that are generated, what zoning regulations must be
considered, and what types of businesses could benefit or be harmed. Architects
consider not only the underlying geology, slope, and drainage characteristics for
GEOGRAPHY OF PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SPACES 21

a new building site but also how the

structure will blend with the existing,
neighboring structures and how the
new space will fill its intended social
purpose.
Other examples of thinking about
space and the geography of our
physical and social spaces:

Physical spaces

• Understanding how and why lunar

LOCATION OF A BOUNDARY DISPUTE
or solar eclipses occur.
• Knowing where to set up your
towel and beach umbrella because
of the incoming or outgoing tide
at the seashore and the moving
angle of the sun’s rays.
• Understanding how bridges would
have been engineered differently in
locations with different geological
substrates.
• Understanding how a boat can
move through a series of canals
and end up being higher or lower VOLCANO FORMATION FROM
GEOLOGIC SUBDUCTION
in elevation than it began.

Social spaces

• As a middle school or high school

student, knowing where to sit in
the cafeteria at lunch time.
• Understanding the implications
associated with airplane seating—
first class versus business class
versus coach.
• Making choices among spaces
segregated by race, gender, age,
and other characteristics.
DRIVING ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD
 Chapter 4

Geography of
Intellectual Space

DNA HELIX

While the initial and intuitive roots of spatial thinking are grounded,
literally, in the geographies of our life and physical spaces, a major part of its
scientific and therefore educational importance lies in the process of
spatialization that creates intellectual spaces. With the advent of computers
and scientific instrumentation, we have gone from a problem-rich, data-poor
world to one that is both data-rich and problem-rich, but is currently lacking
the capacity to bring data to bear on solving problems. The solution to problems
will depend on the capacity to process, analyze, and represent the vast
quantities of data that we can gather and store.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 32

22
GEOGRAPHY OF INTELLECTUAL SPACE 23

MINARD’S DIAGR AM OF NAPOLEON’S MARCH

Spatialization, which combines powerful visualization techniques with spatial

metaphors, has a great potential to overcome current impediments in
information access and retrieval…Common spatial concepts such as distance,
direction, scale and arrangement which are part of the human’s experience in
everyday life are applied to construct abstract information spaces.
-Fabrikant, 2000, p. 69

W
e can use space to help us understand abstract information and
organize knowledge. In the geography of our intellectual space, we take
advantage of our ability to arrange information in space to help us
understand that information. That is, we think with space to help us both learn
and convey meaning to ourselves and others. When we put information, data,
or knowledge in a spatial context, and “spatialize” it, we are able to make sense
out of the information through its arrangement itself.
We think with space when we draw concept maps, construct family trees,
examine the periodic table, and make or use any number of charts, graphs, or
diagrams that describe the relationship between variables, entities, or objects. It
is their spatial arrangement that illustrates the relationship. Within a
traditionally drawn family tree, great-grandparents can be distinguished from
siblings or distant cousins based on where they are located and in proximity to
whom on the diagram (location), how far away on the page the people are from
each other and at what angle (distance and direction), and whether a person is
the first born among siblings or the baby of the family (sequences). In the
periodic table, elements are arranged both sequentially on the basis of their
24 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

CAR DASHBOARD CROSS STITCH PATTERN

atomic number (the weight of their atoms), but the rows and columns
themselves are also arranged to convey additional information about the atoms.
The far right column of the periodic table always contains the noble gasses; the
closer to the bottom of the table the row is located (as it’s depicted from top to
bottom), the heavier the elements the row contains.
Our ability to glean insights, understand more deeply, or learn more
effectively, through spatially based arrangements of complex or large or abstract
data sets can be tremendously powerful, especially in the sciences. An iconic
example of such an outcome is James Watson’s and Francis Crick’s double-helix
model of DNA. When describing the process of how he and Crick came up with
this discovery, Watson speaks specifically about the critical role of designing
and building physical models with which they “played” as they experimented
with creating alternative structures that followed the rules of chemistry.

Other examples of thinking with space and the geography of our

intellectual spaces:
• Designing a quilt or a knitting pattern.
• Mapping a social network.
• Playing chess.
GEOGRAPHY OF INTELLECTUAL SPACE 25

PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART FOR A COMPANY PLAYING CHESS

 Chapter 5

The Processes of
Spatial Thinking

ARR ANGEMENT OF LANDMASSES HELPED EXPLAIN CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

It is the links among space, representation, and reasoning that give the process
of spatial thinking its power, versatility, and applicability. Spatial thinking is
multifaceted in its operation: just as there is no single recipe for how to think
verbally or mathematically, there is no [one] single way to think spatially.
Instead, the process of spatial thinking comprises broad sets of interconnected
competencies that can be taught and learned.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 26

26
THE PROCESSES OF SPATIAL THINKING 27

Encoding of Spatial Characteristics and Concepts

W
e begin spatial thinking by “distinguishing and encoding spatial
features of the world” (Hochberg, 1978, as cited in National
Research Council, Learning to Think Spatially, 2006, p. 41).
Encoding refers to the way that a brain detects and stores the information that
it perceives. Most people get the majority of their spatial information through
the sense of sight, and when our ability to see is unimpaired, processing the
spatial information can be a smooth and seemingly instantaneous event. These
first steps of encoding are so automatic that we are unaware of them, such as
seeing an object or entity and immediately discerning—from its shape, size,
texture, color, and other attributes—what it is and what it is like. For example,
we look at a couch or sofa and we have a good sense of how it would feel if we
were to sit on it, how heavy it might be if we were to try and lift it, and how
unlikely it would be to budge if we were to bump up against it. Its behavior in
a spatial sense is regular, predictable, and static or unchanging. The regular and
predictable behavior of objects in our world helps us develop a sense of the laws
of physical science that we expect objects to follow.
That predictability of spatial behavior and patterns is critical for effective
and successful thinking in and about space. As athletes hit a tennis ball or kick
a soccer ball, they never think about the possibility of the ball itself changing its
characteristics during a game. That is, sports would be very different if a tennis
or soccer ball randomly and independently changed its size or weight during a
game. Furthermore, through study or practice we learn how to predict new
patterns when variables become altered, such as anticipating a curve ball or a
spiral pass. When driving a car, we learn how much distance is needed to apply
the brakes for a complete halt before reaching the stop sign, but we can also
make adjustments when the road is wet or icy. Engineers predict how materials
will function under different physical conditions, such as varying temperatures
or pressures. We also use prior knowledge that we have previously encoded to
understand the less predictable spatial behavior of objects, such as the
experience of standing on a rocking chair.
Frames of reference provide us with contexts for being able to understand the
spatial encoding we do. When we stand in front of different couches in a
furniture store we readily perceive their sizes and shapes, and we are then able
to mentally compare a given couch’s dimensions to the dimensions of the door-
way through which we must fit a couch in our house. In that case we are using
a static, unchanging reference frame (the size of our doorway), as well as
making comparisons between different static entities (comparing one couch to
another in the store). We process our understanding of static entities as we
determine orientation and location, assess distance, and make comparisons of
size, shapes, textures, position, and direction, among other spatial attributes.
28 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

For example, doctors examine the orientation of a spine in X-rays to evaluate for
injuries, and botanists consider the orientation of certain fungi on fallen trees
in the forest to determine the time since the trees fell.
More often we are working with entities that are changing or dynamic and
in motion, and we encode information such as the direction of an object’s
movement, the manner of its motion, and its speed and acceleration. For
example, as we think in space, we use our encoding of movement to anticipate
when two items might intersect or collide, whether it is the soccer ball we have
just kicked towards a running teammate, or the car we are driving at too fast a
speed towards a slower car in front of us. Our ability to discern the direction of
movement works across different time scales as well, so that we can envision and
predict the movement of many diverse phenomena. We can do this at
spatial scales ranging from tectonic plates and weather fronts, to bullets and
electrical currents.
So, location, direction, distance, orientation, and movement are examples of
basic spatial characteristics or concepts that we use to organize and understand
our world and how it works. Though these concepts may seem simple, they are
also nuanced and can be multidimensional. For example, if someone were to ask
you “where” you are located, valid responses could include your latitude and
longitude, or your zip code, or that you are five blocks away from the movie
theatre, or 5000 miles north of the equator, or your place in your family tree.
As we encode spatial information, we usually consider the location of items
or objects within their respective contexts. A house may be located at a single
street address, but that address ref lects its relative position along a street of
other houses, which is one street of many within a neighborhood, which lies in
a particular part of town, which is near a river that is part of a watershed that
stretches over portions of four different counties, etc. Thus, we often think of
individual locations as part of sequences or associations, perhaps arranged as a
hierarchy. Understanding where an individual object or feature (such as a single
house) fits into its contextual network gives us understanding and insight into
the object itself, such as the implications for emergency management if we know
that a house is located on a cul-de-sac. Similarly, knowing the location of a
person within an organizational chart, or an element within the periodic table,
would give us insights into expected functions or behaviors of those “objects.”
Together with location, distance is a key piece of information that spatial
thinkers consider. Calculations based on measurements of distance are what
allow us to calculate the speed of light and identify stars, land airplanes safely,
and determine the habitat ranges of endangered species.
The distance between objects or phenomena is one cue that we use to
describe their arrangement. For example, we characterize the pattern of
THE PROCESSES OF SPATIAL THINKING 29

LANDING AN AIRPLANE PATTERN OF BLOOD SPLATTER

individual items as clustered or dispersed, random or regular, linear or circular.

Comparing two or more patterns helps us decide if they may be related, like the
locations of earthquakes and volcanoes. Noticing that they both seem to occur
in linear patterns has given us clues about plate tectonic boundaries.
One way that we make sense of patterns is to group the items or phenomena
into regions or areas. We visually group locations into clusters of similar values,
or draw lines around clumps of points, to differentiate them from the other
values. This also helps us see outliers that do not follow the same pattern. Some-
times we envision regions that share an underlying common characteristic—
such as the different regions or areas of the United States where a carbonated
sweet beverage tends to be called “pop” versus the areas where people call it
“soda.”
Many items and objects do not stay still but instead flow (diffuse, migrate)
within and across regions or from one location to another. Here too we can
study how a spatial process operates at very different time scales, such as a viral
infection spreading through a community of people, or an ignition spark
triggering a rocket to launch.
Sometimes knowing how one spatial process works can help us understand
another, when those regular and predictable rules are followed. A child placing
her foot across a f low of running water at the side of a street learns how large
reservoirs of water form behind a dam. However, people with expertise in one
type of spatial “task” are not automatically experts in other spatial areas. For
example, radiologists and forensic scientists are both highly skilled at
interpreting spatial patterns (respectively, on X-rays and at crime scenes with
blood splattered) but neither would automatically be able to do each other’s job.
30 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

DISEASE SPREAD/DIFFUSION

So, basic spatial concepts (location, direction, distance, hierarchy, patterns,

etc.) are fundamental to spatial thinking, and we use them constantly, in all of
our different spaces: life, physical, social, and intellectual.
 Chapter 6

Spatial
Representations

3D CITY MAP

Spatial thinking uses representations to help us remember, understand, reason,

and communicate about the properties of and relations between objects
represented in space, whether or not those objects themselves are inherently
spatial. Objects can be concrete things (as in a cognitive map of roads and
neighborhoods in a city) or abstract concepts (as in a two-dimensional graphic
plot…of the love-hate relationships between characters in a Shakespeare play).
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 27

People use representations, whether in the mind or external, to comprehend

and remember a set of concepts as well as to make inferences
and discoveries about those concepts.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 47

31
32 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

T
hus, the world is filled with stationary and moving objects and
materials, affected by spatial processes. We encode different kinds of
information about both. With this information, we create
representations of the world around us: internal ones, such as mental maps or
images that we can use to imagine fitting a couch through a door or how we
would navigate to a familiar location, and external ones, such as sketches or
maps that we create and use to communicate or communicate information to
others. Whether representations are external or internal, humans have relied on
them throughout history to understand the world and how it works.
Maps are graphic representations of the arrangement of natural and
constructed characteristics or features of places, often of our physical and social
world. We create internal, mental maps in our heads when we give directions to
someone, and we use these maps when navigating from place to place. We make
maps also as external representations of space, whether they are hand-drawn on
a piece of paper or digitally produced on a computer screen. Maps are used by
virtually everyone as a metaphor for the organization of information, whether
geographic or not. If we say “Let’s map out what we’re going to say at the
presentation,” we would generate an outline for the f low of ideas, and then we
are thinking with space.
We also use spatial models as simplified and abstract representations of
objects and phenomena, such as the model of the DNA structure that Watson
and Crick made, or the table-top structures that architects build, or a model of
the planets in our solar system that 4th graders construct. Some models are
designed to be exact and accurate, such as a detailed globe or architectural
constructions, while others are instead symbolic, such as a highly abstract
mathematical model. In any case, the representations of models help us
communicate knowledge.
The Internet has brought us useful digital tools to generate representations
that share information and communicate with and about space. With new
computer applications we can collaboratively create concept maps with
colleagues around the world, argue over diagrams illustrating football plays
from last weekend’s game, or debate the likelihood of red and blue states
changing colors in the next US Presidential election. With virtual globes—such
as Google Earth or Esri’s ArcGIS Explorer—we can see movement of oceanic
and atmospheric currents, or 3-dimensional reconstructions of shipwrecks or
buildings of ancient Rome. Through online map “mashups” people can merge
any of their own individual information (about their upcoming wedding plans,
or where they like to drink coffee) with detailed street maps or aerial
photography. As these types of simple maps proliferate and are shared around
the world, mapping is becoming part of our everyday communication. Spatial
thinking contributes to making the maps and is necessary as well to read and
interpret them.
SPATIAL REPRESENTATIONS 33

GIVING DIRECTIONS FOOTBALL PLAY DIAGR AM

Effective external representations are important to our thought processes

because once we have such a representation (map, diagram, etc.) to understand
a spatial structure or process, we can then turn our available working memory
to focus on the how and why of the structure or process, rather than trying to
remember too many things at once. Hence, many people turn to sketching,
whether on a napkin or a white board, as they are thinking about and with
space. This is particularly important in science because of the huge amounts of
data to be considered. Computer applications that help us visualize, explore,
and discover patterns and relationships among the data are an integral part of
digital-age science. Representations help support the scientific inquiry process
itself, as well as enable scientists to share ideas with peers and with the public.
 Chapter 7

Transforming Representations
and Processes of Reasoning

DIAGR AMMING BY DA VINCI

A powerful feature of spatial thinking is transforming, manipulating, and

operating on representations. By mentally extrapolating a path of movement,
we predict time and place of arrival. By mentally rotating an object, we can
determine whether it will fit into a room, a dishwasher, or a suitcase. By
mentally extending a line in a graph, we can detect a trend.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 43

34
TRANSFORMING REPRESENTATIONS AND PROCESSES OF REASONING 35

SHOE TYING

P
roducing and interpreting representations is critical because then our
minds can move on to transforming those representations. When we link
our encoded spatial knowledge with the support that representations can
provide, we have a platform for spatial reasoning: to structure problems, find
answers, and express solutions to these problems (National Research Council,
2006). Moreover, our capacity to transform or manipulate representations works
across many different scales and contexts. A classic assessment of one type of
spatial ability is a measurement of how quickly and accurately one can imagine
the rotation of a 3-dimensional object, but in the real world, very few
peoplework regularly with clusters of blocks. However, the need to imagine an
object from a different angle or perspective is more common than we think. For
example, this ability allows us to recognize familiar people even if we are
standing far behind them; we can imagine what their face would look like if
they turned around.
As another example, if someone were to ask you to provide verbal
instructions for how to tie shoelaces, in your own mind you would generate a
mental image (an internal representation) of your own shoe with its untied laces
followed by a series of sequential images of the laces at different stages of being
knotted, to analyze the steps in their proper order. If you were actually helping
a child to tie his or her shoes as you knelt in front, you would be transforming
your understanding of the steps in mirror-fashion, literally changing your
perspective. Changing perspectives and executing mirrored steps becomes more
challenging with more complicated tasks, such as tying a necktie on someone or
learning to examine dental work with a mirror. Your brain becomes accustomed
36 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

to telling your fingers to move in certain ways, and when you send it different
visual cues, it can be difficult to adjust.
The ability to imagine phenomena and processes from different
perspectives is fundamental to our ability to reason through spatial problems.
Tying someone else’s shoes or necktie are simple examples of changing
perspectives, but these capacities extend to great scientific problems and
solutions. In 1905, Einstein tried to imagine what a beam of light would look
like if he himself were riding on it, a thought-provoking question that
contributed to his understanding and developing the theory of relativity. This
spatiall grounded act of imagination, called “enacting,” is part of our thinking
in space, combining “spatial thinking with motoric thinking” (National
Research Council, 2006, p. 44). It is what actors, athletes, surgeons, and
criminals do as they mentally rehearse the sequence of their performances.
During the most advanced or complex stages of a spatial thinking
process, we are using many representations and conducting numerous transfor-
mations, sometimes simultaneously, at other times sequentially. We may need to
understand and visualize how some parts of a system fit together before we can
move on to the next phase. Such a process may require us to make inferential
leaps because we may have missing or unclear data—or a lack of encoded
information—for some of the intermediate steps.
Sometimes we must use these skills to work backwards in time. A group
of geologists may encounter an outcrop of rocks whose composition and
formation is inconsistent with everything around it, and it may take them time
to deduce what spatial processes must have occurred to lead to the current
conditions. Or detectives use the spatial arrangement of features at a crime
scene to determine where some key individuals must have been standing in
order to leave that pattern of evidence.
Sometimes we use these same skills to imagine future scenarios.
Engineers calculate how high the water level could rise behind a new dam,
taking into account the variables of water f low, topography, soils, precipitation,
land use, demand for electricity or irrigation water, and how these factors might
interact together. Doctors study digital imagery to understand a tumor they
find in someone’s body and then predict, based on its location, proximity to
other organs, and connectivity, what will happen if the tumor continues to
grow. Only later, when surgeons are able to see exactly how and where the mass
is attached, do they make the in-the-moment decisions about where to cut, and
also imagine the outcomes if alternative choices are made.
In short, representations help us to make decisions at various spatial
scales, whether it is for past, current, or future conditions. As we transform
these, in our minds or through physical or virtual models, we reason and gain
insights about the world around us and how it works.
 Chapter 8

Summary: A Brief Time in

the Life of a Spatial Thinker

S
ingle acts of spatial thinking can be described in isolation (such as a
surgeon evaluating a tumor), and we have described different
“geographies” (life, physical, social, and intellectual) as distinctive realms
of spatial thinking. Yet in reality we are constantly and continuously moving
within and between these realms, using representations and reasoning with
spatial concepts in a very natural and automatic manner, usually without a
second thought.
Take, for example, the mental thought processes that might occur during
your drive to work. Driving itself is a thoroughly spatial process that demands
constant monitoring of your own location, often within a choreography of other
2000+ -pound objects moving at high speeds in parallel or opposing directions.
You automatically adjust your speed while coming to a sharp curve, even though
you have long forgotten the specific lessons that you had in high school about
what happens to the momentum of an object as it’s forced to change its
trajectory. Better slow down; it rained a lot last night, and there’s still water on
the roadway. Given how much it rains here every spring, you’d think they would
have put in more drainage ditches along this stretch of road.
As you pass a gas station, you note that the prices have gone up
considerably and you think of the map you saw in yesterday’s paper showing
how gas prices varied all over your region. You quickly glance down directly at
your gas gauge and see that you’ve got about a ¼ tank. That should equal about
80 miles, plenty to last you until the weekend when you’ll have more time. At
that instant, your ears perk up when you hear a siren from somewhere, but after
a couple of seconds you can tell from its sound that it’s both distant and not
moving in your direction, so you disregard the fading noise.
A sign in a f lorist’s window reminds you not to forget Mother’s Day, and
you think of calling your mother, but then you remember that she is on vacation
far away and in an earlier time zone. Plus, she’s way up in the mountains and
her cell phone probably won’t get clear reception anyway. Makes you think of
that map your carrier provided that showed their coverage areas, and you

37
38 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

wonder how that’s determined, a combination of where cell phone towers are
and where mountains block signals, and what role do satellites play? But the
tower information must change pretty quickly; seems like they’re always
putting up new ones. Right then you pass one of those towers that are designed
to look like a tree, with fake green branches to blend into the background more.
You smile as you notice that in fact the tower is not only significantly taller than
the trees around it, but it’s also meant to be some kind of pine tree or other
conifer, and they’ve stuck it in the middle of a bunch of shorter, deciduous trees.
So much for blending in.
You f lip on your turn indicator, slow down, and pull into the new breakfast
place. Used to be a small Italian restaurant but nobody ever went there, and
before that it was a bar that opened only after midnight. Now that it serves
breakfast and lunch, the lines are always long; this is an ideal location for easy
access by commuters. Today you’re in a hurry, so as you stand in the carry-out
line, your mind turns to the engineering task that your team has been
struggling with at work. You have to fit several circuit boards into a
wind-generator controller so that they do not overheat, and so far the group
hasn’t come up with any designs that solve the problem. You order a bagel and
watch the counter staff place it into the vertical holder so they can slice it safely.
Ah, a bagel balancing vertically. That bagel reminds you of one of the large
support struts that’s in your machine. What if you used that strut to align the
circuit boards vertically instead of their current horizontal arrangement? You
make a mental note to try it as soon as you get to the office.
Once back in the car, you reach over to f lip on the radio to catch the end of
the morning talk show, but it’s only sounding like fuzz and you remember that
your young son had been playing with all the dials and buttons the other day
and it seems he has lost your station. In fact, not only has he moved off your
station, but he’s toggled it over to AM radio. You fumble for a bit with the AM
tuning dial, not even really sure where to begin since it’s been ages since you’ve
listened to AM. With a quick bit of nostalgia, you recall having listened to an
AM radio show on Sunday nights when you were growing up. It had been
broadcast from a city far away from where you lived, and you remember your
parents explaining why AM signals came in so much more clearly at night time
than in the day, something about how waves at that frequency travel more
easily through the atmosphere after dark, and you make a note to explain that
to your kids some time. But for now you switch it back to FM. Oops, didn’t see
that curve coming! Better put your bagel down, keep your eyes on the road, and
let your fingers do the moving. Good thing you’re familiar enough with the
radio interface to be able to do it without looking. Upper left button is the one
you want, and finally you’ve got your morning news.
As you turn into the parking lot at your office, you begin your regular
SUMMARY: A BRIEF TIME IN THE LIFE OF A SPATIAL THINKER 39

search for an empty spot that’s on the east side of one of the few trees, knowing
that by the end of the work day the car will be cooler, having been in the shade
from the afternoon sun in the west. But then you remember that today you have
to rush out quickly at noon for a dentist’s appointment, so you go for a spot
that’s closest to your building. The only one remaining in the closest row is
reserved for your boss, and you are still hoping to move up the organizational
ladder, so you better not park there and irritate her. You find another spot
nearby. It’s a tight fit between two other cars, but you squeeze into the space
available, trying to leave as much room as possible for the driver’s door of the
car on your right side. You can’t bear to think of another scratch or ding from a
carelessly swung-open car door.
It’s 8:15 am and already a busy day in the life of a spatial thinker.

THINKING SPATIALLY ON THE WAY TO WORK

 Chapter 9

The Way Forward

A STUDENT IN CLASS

Spatial thinking is a powerful tool. It is fundamental to problem solving in a

variety of contexts: in life spaces, physical spaces, and intellectual spaces. In
each case, it can offer increasingly powerful understandings, moving from
description through analysis to inference. In each case, it depends upon a level
of spatial knowledge, skills in spatial ways of thinking and acting, and the
development of spatial capabilities. All of the component skills can, to some
significant degree, be learned and this points to the crucial need for education
in spatial thinking.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 48

40
THE WAY FORWARD 41

The committee does not view spatial thinking as one more piece to be added
on to an already overburdened curricular structure. Instead, spatial thinking
is seen as an integrator and a facilitator for problem solving across the curri-
culum. Spatial thinking is not an add-on but a missing link across the curri-
culum. Thus, integration and infusion of spatial thinking can help to achieve
existing curricular objectives. The idea of spatial thinking does not and should
not stand alone, but equally well, without explicit attention to it, we cannot
meet our responsibility for equipping the next generation of students for life
and work in the twenty-first century.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 241

The ultimate goal should be to foster a new generation of spatially literate

students who have the habit of mind of thinking spatially, can practice spatial
thinking in an informed way, and can adopt a critical stance to spatial
thinking.
-Learning to Think Spatially, National Research Council, 2006, p. 7

F
ostering spatial “literacy” is one outcome sought by the committee that
authored the Learning to Think Spatially report. As they expanded their
original charge, to understand how GIS could be designed to help support
spatial thinking in children, they uncovered a broader and richer need, to better
understand the nature and character of spatial thinking itself and appreciate
how it might be supported in general.
Spatial literacy is a relatively new idea and is being defined in different
ways. The authors of Learning to Thinking Spatially suggest that spatial literacy
constitutes “proficiency in terms of spatial knowledge, spatial ways of thinking
and acting, and spatial capabilities” (National Research Council, 2006, p. 18).
A spatially literate student has the “habit of mind of thinking spatially;
practices spatial thinking in an informed way; and adopts a critical stance to
spatial thinking” (National Research Council, 2006, p. 20). Such students draw
easily and naturally from a collection of spatial concepts, ground the concepts
effectively in the spatial representations that they generate routinely, and use
these ideas and support structures as they work their way through the tasks and
problems of their lives. A related but alternative way to define spatial literacy is
the confident and competent use of maps, mapping, and spatial thinking to
address ideas, situations, and problems within daily life, society, and the world
around us.
Clearly, the discipline of geography draws significantly from within the
42 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

realm of spatial thinking. The concepts, representations, and processes that we

use as we think spatially are also those that geographers use when they study the
characteristics, features, and spatial relationships within the natural and social
world. This “geographic lens,” described in Geography for Life: National
Geography Standards as applying spatial and ecological perspectives, is
grounded in spatial thinking as we have broadly defined it.
Unfortunately, geography, as a stand-alone subject, is largely absent and
poorly understood within our educational system in the United States. Too
frequently, the richness of geography is reduced to tasks such as memorizing the
location of Zimbabwe, or the principal products of Peru, or other such facts
from places around the world. Meanwhile, students fail to build their
knowledge of why things are grown or manufactured where they are, how
natural disasters can undermine the harvesting or mining of natural resources,
and how the location of a country and its topography could affect its abilities to
develop and maintain international trade networks. This true, richer under-
standing of geography is firmly embodied in the new Geography for Life:
National Geography Standards and merits a significant, supported, and enduring
role in our educational systems.
Admittedly, squeezing one more subject into the curriculum in a single year
of school, even if that one subject could be geography taught at its very best,
won’t alone make us better spatial thinkers. Instead, spatial thinking needs to
be recognized as a horizontal thread across the curriculum, one that can help us
better understand ideas and solve problems in science, math, history, music, art,
physical education, and other subjects. It should also be a vertical thread up
through the curriculum, beginning as early as possible. Babies and toddlers are
already learning to think in, about, and with space, as part of their basic brain
development. Pre-schoolers and early elementary school children are capable of
understanding spatial patterns, sequences, and analogies at earlier ages than
before believed, but they need timely adult intervention in order to enhance
their capacity to build and understand spatial representations. Spatial literacy
need not be isolated from the other verbal, mathematical, artistic, and
kinesthetic activities happening in school, as they are all related. We now
understand that learning how to think spatially is simply a form of learning how
to learn.
Support structures, such as internal and external representations, are crucial
elements of the spatial thinking process. Sometimes simple ones are the most
effective, like quick sketches on the backs of napkins. In other situations,
technologies such as GIS have the potential to be effective tools in this arena,
particularly as they enable visualization and analysis through their
representations of spatial data. There have been challenging barriers for the
educational use of GIS, involving access to and usage of powerful GIS software.
THE WAY FORWARD 43

Fortunately, with every year these barriers are being reduced in scale and need
not be insurmountable. Web-based GIS now offers opportunities to reach new
audiences. It’s time to recognize the role that spatial thinking plays in our lives
and livelihoods. Imagine the opportunities we would create if students went
through their educational experiences able to use space as a means to structure
problems, find answers, express solutions, and carry those skills through to
their work in the world.
 Chapter 10

Frequently Asked
Questions
1. What is spatial thinking?
Spatial thinking is an ability to visualize and interpret location, position,
distance, direction, relationships, movement, and change over space. These
cognitive processes take place in many different situations and at many
different scales.
We are thinking spatially when we decide where to plant different
vegetables in our garden, when we are able to walk around a familiar room in
the dark without bumping into furniture, and when we adjust our rear-view
mirrors in our car.
We are also thinking spatially and geographically when we imagine which
way we need to face to watch the sunset in summer in our backyards, and
why some mountain ranges only receive rain on one side and not the other,
and what makes oceans have low and high tides. We think spatially about
social contexts as well, when we understand how one should modify his or
her body language and physical presence when interacting with people from
different cultures, or when we observe patterns of urban growth.
Broadly defined, spatial thinking is a cognitive act in which humans are
constantly engaged. Many spatial reasoning processes, such as shifting to one
side of a path or sidewalk when someone is approaching from the other
direction, are simple ones that we do naturally, automatically, and seemingly
without conscious thought. Other forms of spatial thinking are undertaken
much more systematically and deliberately by people in their professional
careers, such as the spatial tasks involved in designing and engineering a
skyscraper, or programming a model to predict the effects of climate change.
But in either case, when these actions are reduced to their component steps,
the roles of location, position, distance, direction, relationships, movement,
and change are still central.

44
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 45

2. Can you give me examples of where spatial thinking, or the lack thereof,
has really mattered or made a difference in the world?
a. Stopping oil from f lowing. On April 20, 2010, an oil rig owned by the
British Petroleum Oil Company exploded, killing 11 people. The Deepwater
Horizon rig was extracting oil from a well dug almost one mile (1.6 km)
below the ocean’s surface, and over 13,000 ft (4 km) into the ocean f loor,
about 40 miles south of Louisiana (USA). For almost three months, as many
as 2 million gallons (7,570 cubic meters) of oil per day f lowed into the Gulf
of Mexico, disrupting the livelihoods of thousands of regional workers and
causing untold environmental damage to the marine and estuarine
ecosystems. Engineers worked around the clock to stop the well from f lowing
and/or contain the oil so that it could be recovered by other ships at the
surface. Each solution had to take into account the oceanic currents, the
intense pressure at that depth, the distance from the surface, and the
seasons’ tropical storm patterns. Meanwhile, additional relief wells were
being drilled down through the thousands of feet of ocean f loor to intersect
the sources of subsurface oil and permanently close off the f low to the
damaged well. The detrimental environmental and economic effects of the
disaster will be felt for many years, but as a silver lining, the crisis also forced
petroleum engineers to conduct research and development in an applied
setting and generated significant new knowledge in the field.
b. Returning to Earth from space. Some of us will recall the actual
Apollo 13 events in 1970, as well as the 1995 movie starring Tom Hanks.
The astronauts were able to keep breathing thanks to a jerry-rigged,
improvised connector between incompatible air canisters that filtered carbon
dioxide. The solution, designed by engineers on the ground during the crisis,
involved the use of duct tape. Meanwhile, the mission team in Houston was
calculating the precise angle that the ship had to be adjusted and how much
they had to move the ship forward to get into the right gravitational pull,
then Jack Swigert (played by Kevin Bacon in the movie) had to move his
hand just a precise nudge to get the module in the right place. This incident
led to several days of very intense spatial thinking, on many levels.
c. Escaping from Alcatraz. Early on the morning of June 12, 1962,
guards discovered that three men had escaped overnight from the prison
situated on the small island of Alcatraz, in the middle of San Francisco Bay.
In the six months leading up to their breakout, Frank Morris, Clarence
Anglin, and his brother John Anglin secretly constructed rudimentary tools,
including a simple periscope that they used to spy on guards and a drill from
a vacuum cleaner motor. They stitched together a rubber raft from 50 rain-
46 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

coats, sealed the seams with shoe glue heated by steam pipes, and inf lated it
with a modified concertina. They nailed together wooden paddles from
scraps of wood. Maybe leaving on that particular June night was not the best
“geographic” choice, due to the high tides and strong winds that would have
made their raft travel or swimming difficult, but they made their attempt as
soon as their preparations were complete. We can only speculate on their
success or failure, but clever spatial thinking made their escape possible.
d. Designing a prosthetic limb. Tens of thousands of people lose parts
of their bodies (hands, arms, feet, legs) each year in accidents, from land
mines, and from diseases such as diabetes. Designers of prosthetic limbs and
artificial joints study how our bones, muscles, circulation system, and nerves
fit together. They carefully examine how people move in space, to make the
devices as natural, robust, and useful as possible. Designing a leg for people
who need to return to agricultural work in a field is different from
optimizing one for speed on a race track. Dean Kamen, the person who also
designed a wheelchair that can mount curbs and raise a person to a standing
height, has created an artificial arm with the sensitivity to allow its wearer to
unlock a door or peel a banana. In Thailand, two elephants injured by land
mines now benefit from artificial limbs strong enough to hold them up.
e. Protecting air and water rights. Understanding the right to use or
own land is a fairly tangible idea, but it becomes more interestingly complex
when we consider the use or ownership of resources or material that are
above, below, next to, or moving through that land or space. We then need
laws and policies that control how pollutants that are upstream or downwind
are handled, for example. When we extract significant amounts of water at
the upper reaches of the river, there may not be any left for those at the lower
end. The space above buildings and highways can become incredibly valuable
for development, especially in urban areas. We control who can enter into air
space and who can make loud noises nearby.
f. Reconstructing an airplane. In November of 1955, a United Airlines
jet crashed into a farm in Colorado. Investigators from the FBI were able to
determine from the jagged and outward-bending hole on one part of the
wreckage that a violent explosion had occurred onboard, and they proceeded
to piece together the airplane itself within a large warehouse. Eventually,
other clues found in luggage scraps led investigators to the perpetrators. This
was the first time that an airplane had been re-created from its fragmented
parts.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 47

g. Striking the intended target. On May 7, 1999, NATO inadvertently

bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese
civilians. The intended target was a nearby arms building, but the military
used its street address and a mapping technique of “finding addresses on
parallel streets and drawing lines to the targeted street on the presumption
that numbering schemes are uniform,” not appreciating how inappropriate
this technique would be in such a city as Belgrade. Other visual cues that
suggested the (actual) target was not the intended one, such as the area
lacking any military fencing and the lawn looking manicured rather than
military, were ignored. Not surprisingly, the event became a lengthy
diplomatic issue.
h. Making strategic decisions in war. In the summer of 1812, Napoleon
Bonaparte made the decision to move hundreds of thousands of his military
eastward for an invasion of Russia. Unfortunately for them, he misjudged the
poor quality and low density of road networks in Eastern Europe, as well as
the lack of adequate agricultural lands from which to forage, factors
exacerbated by cold and long winters. Fewer than 10% of the military force
returned to France, a sequence of events over time that has been depicted
very effectively in a graphic by Charles Minard, (see page 23).
i. Reassembling ancient history. Fifty years ago, George Bass and Fred
van Doorninck were the first archaeologists ever to excavate and reconstruct
a shipwreck site. Their 1960s work on a 4th century, Byzantine-era merchant
ship near Yassiada, Turkey, was hampered by the fragile nature of the
underwater remains, so they used their imaginations and thousands of
bicycle spokes to “pin” the wood fragments in place while they proceeded to
map the ship in its resting place. This was the first ever in situ reconstruction
of a wrecked ship. The researchers used the impression that the ship’s stern
had left in the sand to imagine the shape and dimensions of the rest of the
vessel, a process that involved measuring the pattern of the impression with a
protractor, string and f lash bulbs. Early versions of their reconstructed model
turned out hydro-dynamically inaccurate, because they were forced to
imagine the design of the ship’s front based only the remnants from the rear.
The new form they eventually proposed has transformed archaeological
understanding about ancient shipbuilding techniques. Interpreting the
written inscriptions on the ship’s amphorae (jars) significantly inf luenced
scholarly interpretation of the Byzantine Empire as a whole.
48 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

j. Doing harm with medicines. In the 1950s, a German pharmaceutical

company, Gruenenthal, produced an organic molecule that was effective as a
mild sleeping pill and an antidote to morning sickness during pregnancy.
The drug, thalidomide, is a chiral drug that consists of a pair of mirror
images molecules, or “enantiomers.” These molecules differ only in the
spatial arrangement of their constituent atoms, and therefore have identical
physical properties. Because of this, it was believed that both molecules were
simply different forms of the same drug and were identical in their
therapeutic effects. It is now known, however, that when such chiral drugs
mix with chiral protein receptors in our bodies, each enantiomer reacts
differently based on the spatial arrangement of its atoms. One form of the
drug, (+)(R)-thalidomide, is an effective sedative, but the other,
(–)(S)-thalidomide, is a teratogen. Consequently, use of the drug resulted in
birth defects among some 10,000 children worldwide. This experience led
chemists to understand that the relationship between structure and
bioreactivity of enantiomers must be considered and evaluated individually.
By the early 1960s, the drug was banned for use with women who are or may
become pregnant, though it is still widely used to treat other diseases and
conditions. In 2012, Gruenenthal made a public apology for their role in the
production and promotion of thalidomide, but for many, the effort was too
little and too late. The tragedy of thalidomide advanced the study of
stereochemistry, a sub-discipline of chemistry that studies the spatial
relationships within and between molecules.
k. Solving the dinosaur mystery. In 1980, two geophysicists, Luis and
Walter Alvarez, hypothesized that an event like a large asteroid hitting the
Earth would generate global effects, such as dust clouds that would have
entirely blocked sunlight, preventing plants from growing, or they imagined
that these could have been significant enough to have had a profound effect
on animals, even leading to the demise of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.
But could such an impact have happened without leaving physical evidence
of its resulting crater on the Earth’s surface? The evidence was revealed about
a decade later, when NASA researchers first noticed a semi-circular spatial
pattern of limestone sinkholes on satellite images of the Northern Yucatán
portion of Mexico, at a site known as Chicxulub. The patterns are not
readily visible from the ground, but from the atmospheric perspective that
the satellite image enables, patterns at such a large scale become apparent.
Further studies of magnetic and gravity data from rocks at the site
corroborate the conclusion that the crater site, approximately 112 miles (180
kilometers) wide and 3,000 feet (900 meters) deep, was formed by an impact.
The exact mechanisms for how the impact led to the dinosaurs’ demise still
remain uncertain, but most scientists are confident that this is the “smoking
gun” in the mystery.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 49

l. Illustrating missile ranges. Understanding how to represent

phenomena from a 3-dimensional world with 2-dimensional maps is a
challenge to many, including graphic artists at The Economist magazine. In
2003, they erroneously chose to show concentric circles over a map based on
the Mercator projection to indicate the range of missiles that could be sent
from North Korea, resulting in significantly under-predicting vulnerable
areas of the world. Simple mistakes like these can have profound effects for
communicating the ideas of risk. This error was later corrected by the
magazine, and their graphic artists have since used a representation of the
world as a sphere, rather than a rectangular map, to show similar patterns.
m. It’s the little things in life that count. Every day there are spatial
stories that don’t make the big headlines and are not documented in history,
but remember, we are all using spatial thinking strategies all the time.
Whether it’s trying to retrieve a ring that washed down a sink drain, or
thinking about which side of your car has the gas tank as you pull into a
station to fill it up, or figuring out how you too can use duct tape creatively,
you are thinking spatially.
3. Are there differences in the ways that different people think spatially,
and can we improve our skills?
Spatial thinking is a broad category, involving many different types of
actions, movements, and strategies. Individuals may excel at some types of
spatial thinking and not at others. No two people will demonstrate the same
capabilities across the range of spatial thinking activities, as this is affected
by our lifetime of experiences and prior knowledge, and varies context by
context.
How quickly and accurately people can perform specific spatial tasks, such
as navigating with a map or mentally rotating 3-dimensional objects, is
something that a cognitive psychologist might study. At the same time they
also consider ages, genders, right- or left-handedness, educational levels, and
other such variables. By measuring the speed and the accuracy with which a
person performs a spatial task, the researchers draw conclusions about
differences in the ways that individuals and groups of people generally
perform. For example, many studies have found that men typically
outperform women on tests of mental rotation, especially when the tests are
timed. Eliminating the timing factor of the test, and thereby reducing test
anxiety that women may feel, has been shown to improve their scores. On
other spatial tests, such as finding figures hidden within drawings, women
tend to do better than men. Thus, there are relatively few “truths” in how we
think spatially and frequent exceptions to the trends. This speaks to the
wonderfully complex and dynamic nature of our brains.
50 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

In a recent meta-analysis, psychologists reviewed hundreds of spatial

cognition studies and summarized the types of skills that have been
evaluated into five different categories (spatial visualization, mental rotation,
disembedding, spatial perspectives, and perspective taking). By compiling
and analyzing the results of all of these studies, they concluded that everyone’s
performance on these tasks can be improved by practicing the skills, perhaps
through regular playing of a video game such as Tetris or by completing
workbooks with structured examples.
These types of spatial skills are only one aspect of spatial thinking, and
there are certainly differences among people with regard to other aspects too.
Some say that a child’s ability to “free roam” improves his or her sense of
navigation. Consistently relying on a GPS for navigating may have a negative
impact on our natural sense of learning directions and a landscape via a map.
Play activities such as Lego construction are often cited as helpful for
contributing to a child’s spatial capacities.
4. How does spatial thinking correlate with the right-brain, left-brain
divisions? You know, the way that our right brain controls our creative side
and parallel processing, and our left-brain does the sequential ordering
and more logical and rational work? What are brain scientists saying about
spatial thinking?
In the days before advanced digital technologies, our ability to conduct
brain research was extremely limited. For the most part, scientists looked to
people whose brains had been damaged by strokes, industrial accidents, or
war wounds and measured what they could and could not do, after their
accidents. From such studies we gained valuable and original insights into
hemispheric (left-brain/right-brain) differences.
Since the development of f MRI (functional magnetic image resonance)
and other brain-scanning technologies, however, we have developed a far
more nuanced picture of brain structure and function. It seems increasingly
clear that the typical human brain has as many as 8 or 10 separate areas that
become engaged when we think in, about, and with space. This includes
comparing conditions in different places, grouping places into regions,
arranging places in sequences, finding positions in spatial hierarchies, and so
forth.
Our cognitive ability to navigate is concentrated in the hippocampus
section of the brain. In one famous study, it was shown that the hippocampi
of London taxi drivers were disproportionately large, given the number of
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 51

routes they must memorize.

So, learning how to think spatially is a much more complex and multi-
faceted task than is implied by a simplistic left-brain/right-brain model.
5. Our car has a GPS unit and we use it to find places with which we’re
unfamiliar, whether that’s a particular address in our city or driving to
places far away while we’re on vacation. Are we thinking spatially?
A GPS is a great tool that helps us gain confidence as we navigate to new
places. Its advantage over a traditional paper map is its ability to show you
exactly where you are currently located, plus the dual visual and auditory
prompts to guide you on your journey.
Its popularity, however, has also created situations that range from
annoying to morbidly dangerous. Blind faith in the hand-held technology,
combined with ignorance about how the provided information could be
outdated and inaccurate, has led people to make unwise choices: to drive into
a river, or under a too-short bridge, or off a cliff, or to get stuck driving down
an impassable road.
Before GPS, we had to pay more attention. We had to plan better, before
and during a trip. We had to look up the entire route on a map, or call
someone who knew the way, and write down directions. We had to
constantly observe the road signs as we matched our current location to our
intended route, and we had to make instant adjustments based on road,
weather, and traffic conditions. In the absence of a small screen with a
soothing voice informing us that a turn was approaching, we had to monitor
our own progress. When we relied only on ourselves and our paper maps for
navigation, we were forced to independently learn our geography, which in
turn reinforced our spatial thinking capabilities. People whose livelihoods
depend on having a deep sense of locations and street networks, such as
long-time taxi drivers, have brains that are measurably different in the
sections that control navigational aptitude.
Thus our reliance on GPS has multiple outcomes. More people than ever
before are venturing afar, but this is not helping everyone become more
geographically informed. Armed with a confidence-boosting device, even
those with a “poor sense of direction” foray into new (and hopefully charted)
lands, and most of the time, GPS helps them get home again too.
52 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

6. On my new cell phone I have applications that can tell me where the
nearest metro station is or what good restaurants are nearby. I even read
about a new application that has “augmented reality” capabilities, and
when I point my phone’s camera in a particular direction I can be shown
things on its screen that are not actually visible otherwise. Where is the
spatial thinking in all of this?
Many of our cell phones are now location-enabled. This means that the
phone can determine where it is located on the surface of the Earth, either
through a built-in GPS receiver or by calculating its location in relation to
wifi networks and cell phone towers. The accuracy of this positioning process
varies, depending on many factors such as the strength of the signals that
phone is using. Once the phone knows where it is, it can then tell you its
proximity to other objects whose locations have also been mapped
(restaurants, metro stations, movie theatres, etc.). For example, you could
find out which restaurants are within a mile of you or a few minutes of
walking distance. You’re obviously limited to the ones whose information has
been collected by a mapping company, and you are also putting your trust in
that company’s ability to obtain and/or maintain current and accurate
information.
Now that the public has experienced the convenience of having easy access
to location information at its finger tips, we will continue to expect as much
and our world will become increasingly “geo-tagged” in the future. In fact,
geo-tagged objects do not even need to be stationary. If you and your friends
each carry a location-enabled device, some applications will let you find the
friends who are nearby at that moment (at least the ones whose cell phones
are willing to be found).
Augmented-reality applications are taking location a step further. Through
these developments, we can experience (see or hear) images or information
about a place that would otherwise not be visually apparent. For example,
when you point your location-enabled cell phone down a street, it can show
you where wi-fi spots are available, or the prices for any particular real estate
that is available. If you were walking through a historical site carrying a
location-enabled device, you could hear stories of what had happened there
or be shown historical images to compare with the current reality. Many
museums already use devices with these capabilities to allow patrons to take
a self-paced tour through exhibits.
Location-enabled technology clearly has great commercial, industrial, and
social utility. People have more opportunities than ever before to use
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 53

“location” as a criterion for making decisions and learning, and that may
contribute to greater spatial awareness. Any time you perceive things as part
of spatial patterns, groups, sequences, or hierarchies of different sizes, your
brain is organizing the perceptions in order to make spatial relationships
easier to remember.
7. Are there any famous spatial thinkers in history?
Some of the most famous historical spatial thinkers have been artists,
engineers, explorers, mathematicians, and scientists.
Leonardo da Vinci is a classic example. He designed, painted, engineered,
imagined, envisioned, and sketched constantly. His notebooks are filled with
insights and drawings gleaned from extensive observation of objects in
movement, such as birds in f light, that contributed to his understanding of
f luid mechanics.
Many artists who work in 3-dimensional structures are natural spatial
thinkers, relying on a mental representation of a final form that they keep in
mind during their creative process. When asked about one of his sculptures,
Michelangelo is quoted as saying, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved
until I set him free.” Those who work in 2-dimensional media, such as
painting, are just as likely to possess an aptitude for spatial perspectives.
Being able to draw or paint a 2-dimensional scene and have it appear
3-dimensional, or realistic, means understanding how our brains perceive
light and shade, foreshadowing, and perspective. For example, Escher had
great skill at manipulating arrangements and patterns to “play” with space
and create illusions of dimensions.
Early philosophers and mathematicians also relied on spatial thinking
strategies, for their own knowledge and in order to communicate to their
followers. Plato used a simple but elegant representation of a divided line to
help Socrates appreciate the differences among the metaphysical worlds he
was describing. Ptolemy was the first to propose a grid-based reference
system around the Earth, a system that later became latitude and longitude.
Albert Einstein had a great capacity for envisioning how abstract and
invisible forces or objects fit together and interact. In his development of the
theory of relativity, he famously said that it helped him to imagine what a
beam of light would look like if one were riding on it. He had a tremendous
ability to envision the spatial relationships among abstract objects.
In the absence of reliable maps, many historical explorers had to rely on
their natural sense of direction as they journeyed. Navigators from Europe,
54 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

China, and Scandinavia managed to find their way to and from their home
ports, multiple times, without the benefit of digital technologies. Together
with his colleague William Clark, Meriwether Lewis planned a route
westward from St. Louis across unknown territory and reached the Pacific
Ocean. In the early 20th century, Ernest Shackleton used simple tools to
keep his bearings while he and his crew were stuck in Antarctic ice for over a
year.
Marie Tharp was a geologist who mapped the oceanic f loors using data
collected by research ships in the 1950s and 1960s. She had insights into the
formation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge before many others and knew that the
data had to be seen to be understood (and that the visualization of the
patterns would contribute to our knowledge of plate tectonics). Ms. Tharp’s
valuable contributions to our understanding of underwater geologic
formations and plate tectonics is profiled in the National Research Council’s
Learning to Think Spatially (2006).
Why aren’t there more women who are easily identified as “famous”
spatial thinkers? There are many reasons that address these inequalities. One
is that women are under-represented and less-celebrated in our history,
period. For example, it wasn’t until 2009 that the Women Airforce Service
Pilots (WASPs), women with prodigious abilities to think spatially, were
awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their role in World War II.
8. I hear people say they are visual learners, and we know that a picture
is worth 1000 words. Sometimes visual and spatial learners are lumped
together as one group. What’s the difference between visual learning and
spatial learning?
When people say they are visual learners, they can mean that they prefer
to see information written rather than hearing it spoken, or that they prefer
to see a picture or image rather than see information in text form. Seeing a
picture or a graph (or any other external representation) can convey a story
more rapidly than a written paragraph. Details can be gleaned effectively and
quickly, as compared to a written description; hence the well-known phrase
about a picture being worth many words.
Sometimes, when people say that they are visual learners, they are
differentiating themselves from people who learn aurally (through the spoken
word) or kinesthetically (by moving their bodies). For example, some people
can listen to a lecture and understand someone else’s verbal explanations
about a topic. Learning through this method requires people to actively use
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 55

their working memory, as they must remember what had just been said as
they move on to the new. For this reason, many people find that some kind
of visual aid (in the form of a table, chart, figure, or graph) is a useful aid to
organize the information being shared. When people see a graphic
representation of the information, whether it is someone’s name or phone
number or an equation explaining a scientific model, their brain attaches
meaning to that object and it is stored in a different part of the brain. Later,
they may find it easier to recall the internal representation (of that name,
number, or equation) than if they had only heard the information spoken.
This dual-coding of text and images is one simple model of how our memory
works to learn information, but it is only one of many.
In reality, unless one is visually impaired, everyone is a visual learner, as
that is the mode by which we receive the majority of the information that our
brains are encoding. In this book we talked about the role of internal and
external representations in the spatial thinking process. Our mind is
constantly generating internal representations that help us understand
spatially based structures and organizational frameworks. We also create
2-dimensional and 3-dimensional external representations of spatially and
geographically based information, like organizational charts, road maps, or
models of chemical bonds. External models are particularly helpful in the
learning process because they allow our working memory to focus on the
content or function of the representations, rather than on the structure or
framework itself. Though we may be calling it visual learning, it is actually
the spatial arrangement of the information through which we are learning
the material. The arrangement itself is the helpful device and support,
whether it’s a concept map or a work-f low or an x-y chart that shows the
relationship between two variables. In this manner, it is spatial thinking that
is helping us extract meaning from the representation, one which we happen
to be using our vision to perceive.
9. There’s a guy at work who stands really close to me when he talks. He
invades my “personal” space and makes me uncomfortable. Is he just a
lousy spatial thinker?
There is actually a whole field of study, called “proxemics,” about the
distances at which people physically interact. An anthropologist named
Edward T. Hall first coined the term in the 1960s, and his research suggested
the ranges of distance most common for different interaction types: intimate,
personal, social, and public. Since his work, many have studied how these
distances vary considerably by culture, gender, age, location, time of day,
56 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

environmental conditions, duration of experience, etc. For example, we are

usually willing to squeeze ourselves into a crowded elevator and have our
bodies pressed up against strangers, knowing that it is only for a short amount
of time and that people will usually not be making eye contact. However, our
anxiety levels increase when someone enters the elevator and does not turn
around to face the door. At other times, we deliberately seek out social
opportunities that increase our proximity to strangers, such as at parties,
bars, or dances, but typically low-lighting conditions are in effect. If bright,
overhead lights suddenly turn on, bodies will immediately spread apart!
Proxemics has important implications beyond the party scene too. In
international business, diplomatic, and cultural exchanges, it is vital to be
aware that people raised in different social settings are likely to naturally
tolerate and expect different personal distances. It is a dimension of cultural
etiquette that can make or break negotiations.
Proxemics is a great example of thinking in space. Understanding how and
when people learn the acceptable distances of their respective cultures is an
important and current topic for social science, psychological, and health
research. Children who have been physically or emotionally abused may not
be able to tolerate small amounts of personal space. Children along the
autism spectrum may have difficulties perceiving when their physical
presence has entered the personal space of others. Moreover, they may have
difficulties in modulating their voices from one social setting to another,
such as knowing when to switch to an “inside voice.” This could be a result
of their difficulties in perceiving the dimensions of the space itself and
knowing how to adjust their sounds to ref lect the amount of space available.
10. Do we have evidence that animals, apart from humans, demonstrate
the capacity for spatial thinking?
Animals constantly and consistently think spatially while they seek food
and shelter, migrate and travel, and move their bodies in space. Ants can seek
food in areas hundreds of meters from their nests, yet are able to follow a
straight path home. Dogs, squirrels, and other rodents can sometimes find
food they have buried, perhaps from patterns of landmarks and their sense of
smell.
Whether animals have and use internal representations, or “cognitive
maps,” remains a curious question. In one famous study, rats made their way
through a maze in search of food. After the rats followed the same path to
their food reward many times, the paths were manipulated, but most of the
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 57

rats continued making the same direction of turns. This led the researchers
to believe that the rats were indeed following their own cognitive, internal
memories of direction in space.
Some animals use climate, season, and food availability to geographically
adjust their home and territorial ranges. Birds follow landmarks, the sun, the
stars, and magnetic fields to navigate across thousands of miles in search of
food and a mate. Homing pigeons and sea turtles are among some of the
animals who may be able to sense spatial differences in magnetic fields as
they navigate within their ranges. The ability of birds to navigate to specific
destinations is so reliable that for many centuries, carrier pigeons were used
to transport messages during wartime and were successful at these endeavors
up to 95% of the time.
Observing the spatial interactions and movements of animals has helped
us understand physical patterns. For example, we have learned much from
the aerodynamics of bird f locks in f light, the f luid mechanics of schools of
fish, and the locomotion of other animals on land.
11. If spatial thinking is so pervasive, is it ref lected in our language?
There are multiple ways in which spatial thinking is a component of our
written and oral language. At a very fundamental level, it is the shapes and
patterns of letters themselves that allow us to differentiate letters and words
when we read. When children are taught to write the shapes of letters in a
standard form, they must follow the spatial rules of placing shapes above and
below a line, or facing their letters to the right or the left.
In all languages there are examples of metaphors that are built on a
common understanding of spatial concepts. English is full of them. There are
metaphors of orientation that fall into a number of different categories. For
example, happy is up and sad is down: feeling on top of the world; that
boosted my spirits; seeing her gives me a lift; he’s really low these days; my
spirits sank; she hit rock bottom. Notions of perception and understanding
often follow wide and narrow patterns: step back to see the big picture;
far-sighted; take the larger view; tunnel vision; narrow-minded; short-sighted.
Organizational structure is hierarchical: low man on the totem pole; top dog;
moving up the ladder; glass ceiling; back of the pack. Attitudes and actions
often use motion: take the high road; tread on thin ice; breaking new ground;
getting to the bottom (of a mystery). For an in-depth discussion of spatial
metaphors in language, see Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By
(University of Chicago Press, 1980).
58 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

Even in sign language, the nature of signs themselves ref lects similar
spatial metaphors. Signs with upward movement often indicate more, good,
and success. Downward motions are part of failing and losing.
An interesting area of research is how certain words are imbued with
spatial or directional context. That is, some people automatically associate
“north” with “up” and “south” with “down.” We see this in our language
with statements such as “the Dow Jones is heading south.” Sometimes, people
are even confused by rivers that naturally f low northward, such as the Nile in
Africa or the Willamette in Oregon (USA). Marketing researchers have found
that people believe “that it will take longer to travel north than south, that it
will cost more to ship to a northern than to a southern location, and that a
moving company will charge more for northward than for southward move-
ment. Furthermore, people have greater intention to visit stores advertised to
be south (versus north) of a reference point, especially when ease of travel is
important” (Nelson & Simmons, 2009, p. 715).
12. Is there evidence that our ancestors were accomplished spatial
thinkers?
Throughout human history, people were using spatial thinking strategies
in their daily lives as they travelled, worshipped, hunted, and sought safety,
food, and shelter. Their survival would have depended heavily on thinking in
and about physical space.
Humans have long relied on physical and environmental cues to help them
navigate around their respective landscapes, including snow drifts, sand
dunes, vegetation patterns, or ocean waves, depending on their situation.
Within each one of these contexts, those cues would have provided
information about location, distances, and directions that would have aided
navigation, migration, and movement. For example, to be successful at
celestial navigation, one must be able to extract meaning from the patterns of
stars, to estimate distances between individual stars or the stars and the
horizon, and to calculate directions based on these inputs. Early explorers
such as the Vikings may have also used patterns of light refraction coming
through crystals to be able to discern the sun’s location during cloudy days.
Polynesians and other island-dwelling people also used the shapes of clouds,
the color of the ocean water, and the directions from which waves were
traveling to keep track of their location. Their famous “stick chart” maps
could show not only the distance between islands, but the regional patterns
of ocean currents as well.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 59

The island inhabitants of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) were
thinking in and about space when they engineered a system of felled logs to
move stones weighing tens of thousands of pounds. The statues carved from
the stones could also be moved from one location to another, without tipping
or breaking, using a system of ropes and sheer muscle strength. Plus, some of
the Rapa Nui statues are oriented to face the location where the sun sets
during the equinox. This type of earth-sun spatial knowledge is also evident
at other ancient sites throughout the world, such as Angkor Wat in
Cambodia, Chichen Itza in Mexico, Machu Pichu in Peru, Karnak in Egypt,
and several Native American sites. Native populations across almost all
continents used their skills at spatial thinking both to design and construct
their sacred structures.
Thousands of years ago, engineers built simple and elegant aqueducts in
the Roman Empire, for example, that demonstrated remarkable
understanding of hydrology. Some of these structures carried water over 1000
miles with an average gradient of just inches per mile, enough gradient to
f low but not enough to achieve velocities that would erode the surfaces.
In other cases, mere survival also depended on being able to construct
simple tools out of simple materials. Designing and assembling a bow and
arrow, an adze, or a trap for small animals requires active and accurate
spatial thinking.
13. Is there spatial thinking prevalent in the video games that children
(and adults) play? Will all the hours that my children spend playing video
games make them better spatial thinkers?
Video and computer games are filled with spatial activities: driving,
navigating, seeking, hiding, shooting, balancing, arranging, and
maneuvering. Researchers are regularly investigating how these virtual,
digital escapades translate into our spatial realities.
For example, we know that regularly playing Tetris, which requires
rotating and shifting a series of shaped blocks to fit into a continuous field of
other blocks, improves people’s mental rotation skills. Playing
action-oriented games, including popular first-person shooting games,
improves a variety of spatial skills. Practicing a first-person shooter game
leads to substantial improvements in how well people are able to pay
attention to visual-spatial patterns. After they practiced playing the game,
both men and women became more observant of a greater portion of a
computer screen and could better identify what had happened in different
60 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

sections of the screen.

Memorizing one’s way around a virtual world on a computer game does
not mean that you automatically develop better navigational skills around
your own real world. But in other situations, there is some transfer of skills
to different situations. Surgeons who play certain video games have been
shown to have better skills in their operating rooms, especially at
laparoscopic surgery.
Overall, then, playing video games generally improves some types of
particular spatial skills, but we know little about any effect on other forms of
spatial thinking.
14. Can you describe the connections between using geographic
information systems (GIS) and spatial thinking?
When we think spatially, we visualize and interpret information or
objects, often through representations, based on their location, position,
distance, direction, etc., to reason through a process. With GIS, we generate
dynamic representations of information which we can analyze on the basis of
many different spatial relationships (location, distance, direction, hierarchy,
associations, etc.). Through GIS we can visualize patterns, measure distances,
calculate dimensions, and identify spatial correlations. Using a GIS forces
one to confront the fundamental spatial concept of scale.
The discipline of GIScience and the range of GIS technologies could only
have been designed and developed by people who were thinking spatially. At
the same time, that doesn’t mean that people who begin to use the
technologies will necessarily or automatically become better spatial thinkers,
or are able to consistently apply sound spatially based reasoning to their
analyses and draw valid conclusions. Just as using calculators, word
processors, and the Internet does not automatically generate competency
with numbers, words, or information, so using GIS does not necessarily lead
directly or automatically to someone becoming a more spatially or
geographically literate person. Too frequently, we expect the understanding
to happen on the basis of the visualization alone, and both students and
teachers are unprepared to follow spatially based lines of reasoning.
Here’s an example: with GIS someone can easily create one single map that
shows several different layers of geographic information, such as the 150+
countries of the world where people drive on the right side of the road,
distinguished from the other 50+ countries where they drive on the left; the
world-wide average January temperatures; and the current and past
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 61

(five years ago) location of every Starbucks and McDonald’s.

The map will be cluttered, but through GIS we can zoom to any part of
the map and evaluate the information in more detail. Viewers beware:
because all of these data sets can be displayed together, some people will
automatically assume that a connection exists among these variables, though
they are almost certainly not related. Visual representations of information
can be powerfully suggestive, even though logically or rationally one would
not expect any relationship among the data sets. This line of thinking
ref lects logical fallacies and leads to poor spatial thinking outcomes.
However, valuable spatial thinking may develop if the map reader begins
to ask the “why” questions, and “I wonder…” statements may inspire further
spatially based learning. Why are the patterns the way they are? Here are
some questions and thought-progressions that might be inspired by exploring
with these GIS data.
In what ways could the left-side-driving countries be related to one
another? I wonder who first realized that the vehicles driven by mail carriers
might require a redesign in order to have the driver always able to reach into
mailboxes along the street edges. Why are Chile’s temperatures so different
from Argentina’s even though the countries are adjacent?
Why is McDonald’s still expanding everywhere, but Starbucks seems to be
growing in some places and closing in others? If China is the world’s most
populated country, why aren’t there any McDonald’s in the western part of
the country? If India has almost as many, or more, people as China, why are
there many more McDonald’s in China than India? Maybe it’s because most
Indians are Hindi and according to their religion, it’s unacceptable to kill
and eat cows. I wonder what a map that showed religions of the world would
look like. I wonder what a map would look like that showed how McDonald’s
menus varied around the world.
I think Starbucks roasts all of its own coffee beans, but they can’t roast
them at each individual store. I wonder where their large roasting centers
are—probably located close to where most of their stores are, so they don’t
have to pay money to ship the beans very far. Unless they have just one big
roasting center that is located near an interstate highway for easy driving. I
wonder what the whole network of interstate highways looks like. I wonder if
I can make it to Starbucks for some coffee before my next class starts.
Clearly, there is a role for mapping in the support of certain spatial
thinking processes, as this sequence suggests. As a start, GIS allows the map
62 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

maker to query, measure, and analyze the data, rather than draw conclusions
based on visual interpretation alone. Perhaps the map maker will be inspired
to gather additional data sets to explore further. GIS has vast potential for
use in many different formal and informal educational settings, though
thoughtful guidance to learning with this tool is necessary.
To date, we know little about the connections between the use of GIS and
the areas of spatial cognition that many psychologists study, such as mental
rotation, for example. Most often, psychologists prefer to test their subjects
in lab settings, and with simple maps, so that it is easier to control for other
variables and single out the effects of the “treatment” they might be
researching. Realistic use of GIS, on the other hand, would have many
factors affecting one’s spatial cognitive abilities concurrently.
15. Education is supposed to help us become “critical thinkers.” Are there
connections between critical and spatial thinking?
Critical thinking means balancing evidence, considering multiple
perspectives, and evaluating ideas systematically. Critical thinkers have the
habit of mind to study a situation or problem from all angles, draw upon
information from multiple and diverse frames of reference, and reach a
reasoned conclusion that ref lects their best judgment.
Effective critical thinking may involve strategies that are inherently
spatial. Our descriptions of critical thinking use spatial vocabulary:
perspectives, angles, frames of reference. The metaphors we use for the act of
critical thinking are often spatial too: step back to see the big picture, look at
it from another angle, get to the bottom of it. While critical thinkers weigh
evidence and consider alternatives, they may create spatial arrangements of
information, such as a f low chart or a concept map, to help them understand
a sequence of events or the relationships among the variables.
Another connection between critical and spatial thinking concerns the use
of representations themselves. To wade through the plethora of data and
information being generated by the world today, more and more people are
relying on graphical representations, including tables, charts, diagrams,
figures, and maps. Think of all the popular media (newspapers, magazines,
and television news shows) that now employ these visual representations of
information. Many of these have spatial dimensions: trend lines, clusters,
sequences, and patterns that need to be interpreted to be able to “read” the
image and extract meaning.
Graphicacy is the ability to understand and present information in the
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 63

form of sketches, images, diagrams, maps, plans, charts, graphs and other
non-textual formats. Strong graphicacy skills mean that one can competently
and confidently interpret information that comes in a graphical format. To
the list of other “critical” competencies within education (reading, writing,
speaking and thinking), we must add critical viewing skills. Visual images
can be powerfully compelling, and critical thinkers must be able to extract
and assess the evidence when it is presented in these formats. Plus, they need
to be able to generate their own representations of information as they
evaluate factors. In this sense we find a further connection between spatial
and critical thinking.
16. How is spatial thinking being addressed in formal school settings? Is it
part of any curricula?
Students are often called upon to use spatial thinking skills during their
school years. Young children build with blocks, learn about the phases of the
moon and what generates changing seasons, and are taught about the
geographical patterns of rivers, mountains, and cities around the world. They
are encouraged to learn their street address and the relative location of their
home to school and other key locations in the community. As students
progress through the grades, they learn about different places and events
through social studies, and about natural phenomena in science at increasing
levels of sophistication, and using a growing range of observational and
recording skills. Thus, there are opportunities for school content to engage
spatial thinking strategies, but these activities are more likely to be isolated
experiences. The development of spatial thinking is not an explicit goal of
any school curriculum as literacy and numeracy are; spatial thinking
strategies are not part of any regular collection of instructional goals nor
learning outcomes. As the committee [that wrote Learning to Think Spatially]
said, “Spatial thinking is…under-recognized, undervalued, underapprecia-
ted, and therefore, under-instructed” (National Research Council, 2006, p.
15).
In the absence of spatial thinking being a recognized portion of our
educational content, it is accordingly not explicitly assessed. Many suggest
that this has led to a “gap” in our educational achievement. Students with
strong spatial skills will have their talents go unrecognized and therefore
unsupported, or not be challenged to do more. With all prioritization going
to verbal and mathematical content, those with spatial aptitudes and interests
are side-lined. The largest outcome of this oversight may be an unnecessary
limiting of those who might otherwise choose science, technology,
64 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. The vast

majority of adults who excel within their STEM careers have been shown to
have strong spatial skills. And by not explicitly teaching spatial thinking
approaches and strategies, we may be limiting the number of women and
other under-represented populations in certain fields.
However, small and scattered signs of change are evident. For example,
course content that includes “spatial” reasoning has recently been added to
the list of requirements for individuals becoming certified as an Instructional
Leader in STEM (Grades PreK-6) in the State of Maryland. These ideas are
beginning to be heard.
Of course, geography is a subject that is inherently spatial, but it too is
largely absent from school curricula, or it is taught in such a way that strips
its essentially spatial (and environmental) nature. In the United States,
geography content is subsumed in the social studies and too frequently taught
by underprepared teachers. The type of geography that students ought to
understand and be able to practice may be in the written curriculum, but is
not well taught as a spatially rich experience. Thus, the experienced
curriculum is weak with “where” and “why there” questions for students to
engage in. The introduction of the Common Core State Standards makes the
situation even more critical. While the National Geographic Society has
prepared a volume showing teachers how to make the Common Core
Standards more geographically rich, both science and the social studies will
struggle to find balance in a curriculum increasingly dominated by language
arts and mathematics.
One positive step to institutionalize spatial thinking into everyday
classroom practice comes with the second edition of Geography for Life:
National Geography Standards. The updated standards have an expanded
focus on spatial thinking within the essential element “The World in Spatial
Terms.” This includes a strand across the grade levels in Standard 3 “How to
analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments” on the
development of spatial concepts. Spatial thinking is at the center of many of
the standards, and if implemented, these standards will help students and
teachers bolster their use of spatial thinking in learning about and applying
geography.
17. I’ve never heard of spatial thinking before. Is this really just something
that a few academics are talking about?
Spatial thinking is a wonderfully complex and diverse topic, though it is
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 65

largely unrecognized by the general public. Many dimensions of how we

think spatially are deceptively obvious, and there is an inherent challenge to
paying explicit attention to the obvious.
The use of the word “spatial” itself has increased dramatically over the last
50 years. There are new academic journals focused on spatial approaches, and
the U.S. government is funding centers and grants that support spatially
based research and projects. As a research topic, spatial thinking is of interest
to neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, geographers, education
specialists, and numerous others, especially those involved in the STEM
disciplines. But across all of those groups, the types of questions being asked,
the tools being used to measure, and the objectives of the research differ
broadly. Even the terminology differs. Researchers have been funded to study
spatial skills, aptitudes, relations, cognition, and literacy, among others. It is
relatively uncommon for diverse groups of researchers to interact and
surprisingly uncommon for scholars from these groups to have even read each
other’s research.
In the United States, there are activities underway that may lead to greater
awareness. The National Geographic Society has launched an aggressive push
for geoliteracy, within which spatial thinking plays a central role. The
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, funded by the National Science
Foundation, is an important hub for a network of people who research
spatial cognition, and it continues to encourage collaborative efforts and
wide outreach. There are a few universities that now have courses and
programs in “spatial studies” and “spatial literacy,” and there are handful of
spatial-thinking-across-the-curricula initiatives.
So while it might appear that most of the explicit attention to spatial
thinking is taking place in research and higher education environments, it is
our hope that with publications such as this one, an awareness and
appreciation of spatial thinking may begin within the general public. That is
a first step towards a wider community of spatial thinkers, one that uses
spatial thinking to structure and understand problems, find answers through
reasoning, and communicate its knowledge and solutions.
 Chapter 11

A Note for
Geography Educators
Dear Teachers and Professors of Geography:
The focus of this volume has been on space at all scales: from the nano to the
astro-physical. Though people most frequently function and interact at a human
scale (that of their personal spaces, their local environment, and the surface of
the earth) they are capable of thinking across all spatial scales. This is because
the cognitive processes of spatial thinking (of visualizing and interpreting loca-
tion, position, distances, directions, relationships, movement, and changes) can
be applied and are relevant at all scales, though especially at scales that are very
small and very vast, we must rely on digital tools to help us with the visualization
and interpretation.
The domain of Geography, as it is typically taught and understood as
a disciplinary subject, focuses on an environmental and earth-scale. This
small book was not written for spatial thinking only at that scale, though it does
include it. Understanding geographic processes, interpreting geographic patterns
seen directly or through representations, and analyzing human/environment
interactions, the fundamental activities within Geography, are all practices that
rely on the act of spatial thinking.
The recently updated Geography for Life: National Geography Standards,
Second Edition, identifies what every geographically informed person should
know and be able to do, ideally by the time he/she graduates from twelfth grade.
Geography for Life, as it is commonly referred to, is a consensus document produ-
ced in collaboration by representatives of the four main geography organizations
in the United States: the American Geographical Society, the Association of
American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the
National Geographic Society. It informs state and local geography curriculum
standards.
Geography for Life is broken into three main parts: perspectives, content
knowledge and skills. Geographers have unique perspectives to frame their
understanding of the world. The spatial perspective is one of these. This
perspective asks, “Where is it? Why is it there?” and is concerned with spatial
patterns of both human and physical phenomena. The 18 geographic knowledge

66
A NOTE FOR GEOGRAPHY EDUCATORS 67

standards are grouped by 6 Essential Elements: 1) The world in Spatial Terms;

2) Places and Regions; 3) Physical Systems; 4) Human Systems; 5) Environment
and Society; and 6) The Uses of Geography.
Though spatial thinking may be behind all of these standards to some
extent, here we have identified certain standards that are more clearly aligned
with the notions of spatial thinking as introduced in this book. These have been
color-coded to match the grade levels identified in Geography for Life: red for
Grade 4, green for Grade 8 and purple for Grade 12.

G eogr aphy of L ife Spaces : E x amples of Thinking in Space

1. G eogr aphy Standard 3: How to analyze the spatial organization of people,
places, and environments on Earth’s surface. Geography for Life, p. 31
4 th G r ade : Spatial concepts: the meaning and use of fundamental concepts
such as location, distance, direction, scale, movement, region, and volume.
The student is able to describe and explain the spatial organization of people,
places, and environments (where things are in relation to other things) using
spatial concepts, as exemplified by being able to:
a. Explain the meaning of the spatial concepts of next to, behind, in front
of, left, right, inside, outside, and between (e.g., moving people or desks to
new locations, labeling spots in the room), or
b. Construct a story built on spatial concepts using directions, locations,
distances, and movements in the plot (e.g., cardinal directions, relative
and exact locations, real or imaginary locations, statements of distances).
2. G eogr aphy Standard 11: The patterns and networks of economic interde-
pendence on Earth’s surface. Geography for Life, p. 65
4 th G r ade : Connecting economic activities; networks of transportation and
communications are used to move information, products, and people. The
student is able to describe and analyze different modes of transportation and
communication used to move people, products, and ideas from place to place,
as exemplified by being able to:
a. Describe the different modes of transportation used for specific
products and ideas (e.g., barges and trains for bulky heavy items, airplanes
for high-cost perishables, pipelines for liquids and gases, telephones or
Internet for ideas and information).
8th G r ade : Connecting economic activities; economic systems are
dependent on integrated transportation and communication networks. The
student is able to identify and describe examples of how people, products, and
ideas move using integrated transportation and communication networks, as
68 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

exemplified by being able to:

a. Analyze systems for the movement of people and goods (e.g., hub-and-
spoke systems for air travel; U.S. mail, United Parcel Service and FedEx
use airplanes, large trucks, and small trucks for global delivery depending
on the size and weight of the cargo and its origin and destination).

G eogr aphies of P hysical Spaces : E x amples of Thinking about

P hysical Space
1. G eogr aphy Standard 7: The physical processes that shape the patterns of
Earth’s surface. Geography for Life, p. 45
4 th G r ade : Earth-Sun Relationships: Earth-Sun relationships affect
conditions on Earth. Therefore, the student is able to describe how Earth’s
position relative to the Sun affects conditions on Earth, as exemplified by
being able to:
a. Describe the differences in seasons based in latitude (e.g., first and last
frost in different locations, length of growing season, bird migrations).
2. G eogr aphy Standard 14: How human actions modify the physical
environment. Geography for Life, p. 76
12th G r ade : Modification of the Physical Environment: Human
modification of the physical environment can have significant global
impacts. Therefore, the student is able to explain the global impacts of
human changes in the physical environment, as exemplified by being able to:
a. Explain how changes in human behavior can result in the introduction
of aerosols into the atmosphere that have effects on a global scale (e.g.,
dust from Chinese agriculture and industry affecting Hawaii’s weather,
dust from Saharan Africa affecting weather in Florida).

G eogr aphies of S ocial Spaces : E x amples of Thinking about

S ocial Space
1. G eogr aphy Standard 4: The physical and human characteristics of places.
Geography for Life, p. 36
8th G r ade : The Concept of Place: Personal, community, and national
identities are rooted in and attached to places. Therefore, the student is able
to explain how personal, community, or national identities are based on
places, as exemplified by being able to:
a. Describe and explain the factors that contribute to the identity of being
from a specific place (e.g., a “New Yorker,” a “Southerner,” a “Texan,” a
postal code such as 90210).
A NOTE FOR GEOGRAPHY EDUCATORS 69

2. G eogr aphy Standard 12: The processes, patterns, and functions of human
settlement. Geography for Life, p. 70
12th G r ade: Urban Forms and Functions: Urban models are used to ana-
lyze the growth and form of urban regions. Therefore, the student is able to
explain and compare the growth and structure of cities using different urban
models, as exemplified by being able to:
a. Identify and explain contemporary urban conditions that may not
be addressed in urban models (e.g., homelessness, squatter settlements,
transitions in ethnic neighborhoods, low-income public housing, gentri-
fication).

G eogr aphy of I ntellectual Space : E x amples of Thinking with Space

1. G eogr aphy Standard 3: How to analyze the spatial organization of people,
places, and environments on Earth’s surface. Geography for Life, p. 34
12th G r ade : Spatial Models: Models are used to represent the structure
and dynamics of spatial processes that shape human and physical systems.
Therefore, the student is able to analyze and explain the spatial features,
processes, and organization of people, places, and environments using models
of human and/or physical systems (e.g., urban structure, sediment transport,
and spatial interactions), as exemplified by being able to:
a. Construct a model and explain the inf luence that spatial processes have
on human and physical systems (e.g., urbanization and transportation;
housing prices and environmental amenities such as water bodies, parks,
or vistas; gardening associated with the growing season).
2. G eogr aphy Standard 8: The characteristics and spatial distribution of
ecosystems and biomes on Earth’s surface. Geography for Life, p. 48
8th G r ade : Components of Ecosystems: Components of ecosystems are
interdependent. Therefore, the student is able to construct a model to explain
how an ecosystem works, as exemplified by being able to:
a. Construct a f low chart to explain the interactions of components
within an ecosystem (e.g., water cycle, oxygen and carbon dioxide
exchange, producers, consumers, and decomposers).

Geography for Life: National Geography Standards is avilable from The

National Council for Geographic Education. Please visit www.ncge.org for more
information.
 References and
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National Research Council. (2006). Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12
Curriculum. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.
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CHAPTER 10
1. What is spatial thinking?
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2. Can you give me examples of where spatial thinking, or the lack thereof, has really mattered or made a
difference in the world?
a. Stopping oil from flowing
Deepwater Horizon response and restoration. U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrieved from
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Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved from http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/deepwaterhorizon
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Easton, P. (2005, April 17). Group honors engineers who saved Apollo 13. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from
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c. Escaping from Alcatraz
A byte out of history. (2007, June 8). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved from
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2007/june/alcatraz_060807
Sullivan, S. (2009, September 22). Mystery still swirls around Alcatraz escape. National Public Radio.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112857262
The great escape from Alcatraz. Ocean View Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/
alcesc1.htm
d. Designing a prosthetic limb

70
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 71

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Longman, J. (2007, May 15). An amputee sprinter: Is he disabled or too-abled? The New York Times.
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Motala: The Thai elephant. Retrieved from http://animom.tripod.com/motala.html
See Amy run. Retrieved from http://www.seeamyrun.com/
e. Protecting air and water rights
Airport noise report. Retrieved from http://www.airportnoisereport.com/
American Electric Power settles $4.6B pollution suit. (2007, October 9). National Public Radio. Retrieved
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Cody, E. (2006, January 12). A stand against China’s pollution tide. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
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El Dahan, M. (2009, July 27). Egypt says historic Nile river rights not negotiable. Reuters. Retrieved from
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Kansas’ largest utility settles Clean Air lawsuit for $500 million. (2010, Janary 25). Environment News
Service. Retrieved from http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2010/2010-01-25-091.html
Nile river politics: Who receives water? (2000, August 10). Global Policy Forum. Retrieved from
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Pollution turns river red in central China. (2008, February 27). The New York Times. Retrieved from
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Russian aircraft have skirted British airspace 18 times in two years. (2009, July 10). The Telegraph. Retrieved
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f. Reconstructing an airplane
A byte out of history: The case of the mysterious mid-air explosion. (2005, December 9). Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2005/december
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Myers, S. L. (2000, April 17). Chinese embassy bombing: A wide net of blame. The New York Times.
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h. Making strategic decisions in war
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Geographia. Retrieved from http://www.geographia.com/russia/rushis05.htm
72 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

i. Reassembling ancient history

Bass, G. F., & Van Doorninck Jr., F. H. (1971). A fourth-century shipwreck at Yassi Ada.
American Journal of Archaeology, 75, 27–37. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/503679
He shapes ship shapes by the sea shore. (2010, January 22). This American Life, WBEZ. Retrieved from
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j. Doing harm with medicines
Adams-Spink, G. (2012, September 6). Opinion: Why thalidomide apology is not enough. CNN. Retrieved
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Chiral drugs: Thalidomide and ritalin. Yale University. Retrieved from
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Controversies and medicine: Thalidomide. Science Museum, London. Retrieved from
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Optical isomerism in thalidomide. Retrieved from
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Thalidomide: A controversial chiral drug. (2007). Quality Education Fund, Hong Kong. Retrieved from
http://www3.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/chemistry/files/chiraldrug.pdf
k. Solving the dinosaur mystery
A ‘smoking gun’ for dinosaur extinction. (2003, March 6). NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved from
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=8
‘Dinosaur killer’ asteroid imaged for first time. (2003, March 7). National Geographic News. Retrieved from
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Rincon, P. (2010, March 4). Dinosaur extinction link to crater confirmed. BBC. Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8550504.stm
Ring of cenotes of Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan. UNESCO/World Heritage Convention. Retrieved from
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What killed the dinosaurs? Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved from
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Yucatan crater linked to mass extinctions of dinosaurs. (2000, December 25). Science Daily. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001225061758.htm
l. Illustrating missile ranges
Daily chart: Missile diplomacy. (2003, May 15). The Economist. Retrieved from
http://www.economist.com/node/1788311
Geographical mistakes: Keeping geographers busy. (2011, January 2). SpatialAnalysis.co.uk. Retrieved from
http://spatialanalysis.co.uk/2011/01/geographical-mistakes-keeping-geographers-busy/
m. It’s the little things in life that count.
How to rescue an item from the sink. eHow. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/how_117246_rescue-item-sink.html
There I fixed it—Funny, bad repairs. Retrieved from http://thereifixedit.com/
3. Are there differences in the ways that different people think spatially, and can we improve our skills?
Gay men navigate in a similar way to women, virtual reality researchers find. (2008, January 3). Science Daily.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080103135205.htm
Gender gap in spatial skills starts in infancy, psychologists report. (2008, December 23). Science Daily.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209100948.htm
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 73

The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Spatial Intelligence and Learning Cen-
ter. Retrieved from http://www.silccenter.org/index.php/resources/showcase/155-showcase-june-2012-the-
malleability-of-spatial-skills-a-meta-analysis-of-training-studies
4. How does spatial thinking correlate with the right-brain, left-brain divisions? You know, the way that
our right brain controls our creative side and parallel processing, and our left-brain does the sequential
ordering and more logical and rational work? What are brain scientists saying about spatial thinking?
Brain changes seen in cabbies that take ‘The Knowledge’. (2011, December 8). BBC. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16086233
Carey, B. (2009, July 22). The curious case of Phineas Gage, refocused. The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/the-curious-case-of-phineas-gage-refocused/
Gersmehl, P. J. (2011). Wormholes in the Common Core: Spatial reasoning, literacy and mathematics educa-
tion. Anekumene, 1(2). Retrieved from http://www.anekumene.com/index.php/revista/article/view/26/25
Gersmehl, P., & Gersmehl, C. (2007). Spatial thinking by young children: Neurologic evidence for early
development and ‘educability’. Journal of Geography, 106, 181–191.
Jabr, F. (2011, December 8). Cache Cab: Taxi drivers’ brains grow to navigate London’s streets. Scientific
American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=london-taxi-memory
5. Our car has a GPS unit, and we use it to find places with which we’re unfamiliar, whether that’s a par-
ticular address in our city or driving to places far away while we’re on vacation. Are we thinking spatially?
Charette, R. (2008, March 19). GPS says: Turn left, turn right, drive off cliff. IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved from
http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/gps_says_turn_left_turn_right
GPS puts truck driver under a bridge too short. (2009, July 9). KATU.com. Retrieved from
http://www.katu.com/news/weird/50360517.html
Hutchingson, A. (2009, November). Global impositioning systems. The Walrus. Retrieved from
http://www.walrusmagazine.ca/articles/2009.11-health-global-impositioning-systems/
Huth, J. (2013). The Lost Art of Finding Our Way. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sat Nav sends mini-bus into river. (2008, April 23). Metro (UK). Retrieved from
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/144292-sat-nav-sends-mini-bus-into-river
The last word: This is your brain on GPS. (2009, November 15). The Week. Retrieved from
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/102501/The_last_word_This_is_your_brain_on_GPS
Wilson, K. A. C. (2009, December 29). Cheery-voiced GPS units lead drivers into danger. The Oregonian.
Retrieved from http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/search_and_rescue_experts_say.html
6. On my new cell phone I have applications that can tell me where the nearest metro station is or what good
restaurants are nearby. I even read about a new application that has “augmented reality” capabilities, and
when I point my phone’s camera in a particular direction I can be shown things on its screen that are not
actually visible otherwise. Wow. Where is the spatial thinking in all of this?
Geospatial revolution. Penn State Public Broadcasting. Retrieved from http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/
10 amazing augmented reality iPhone apps. Mashable. Retrieved from
http://mashable.com/2009/12/05/augmented-reality-iphone/
7. Are there any famous spatial thinkers in history?
Analogy of the divided line. Retrieved from
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Analogy_of_the_divided_line.html
CSISS Classics. Center for Spatially Integrated Social Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.csiss.org/classics/
Ernest H. Shackleton. Antarctic explorers. Retrieved from http://www.south-pole.com/p0000097.htm
Leonardo. National Museum of Science and Technology. Retrieved from
74 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/
Remembered: Marie Tharp, pioneering mapmaker of the ocean floor. Columbia News. Retrieved from
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/08/tharp.html
Rosenberg, M. Ptolemy. What is Geography. Retrieved from
http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/ptolemy.htm
Sicinski, A. Visual thinking: The path to genius? Visual Thinking Magic. Retrieved from
http://www.visualthinkingmagic.com/path-to-genius
With resolute and thorough planning: Captain Meriwether Lewis’ preparations for
the journey to the Pacific ocean. Corps of Discovery: Lewis and Clark. Retrieved from
http://www.history.army.mil/LC/The%20Mission/planning_and_preparation.htm
8. I hear people say they are visual learners, and we know that “a picture is worth 1000 words.” Sometimes
visual and spatial learners are lumped together as one group. What’s the difference between visual learning
and spatial learning?
Developing your visual awareness. Visual Thinking Magic. Retrieved from
http://www.visualthinkingmagic.com/
Thompson, C. (2010, September 27). Clive Thompson on the power of visual thinking. Wired Magazine.
Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/09/st_thompson_visual/
Visual thinking strategies. Retrieved from http://www.vtshome.org/
9. There’s a guy at work who stands really close to me when he talks. He invades my “personal” space, and it
makes me uncomfortable. Is he just a lousy spatial thinker?
Cohen, S. (2009, July 13). Proxemics – the psychology of positioning and personal space. My career manager:
Reach tour career potential. Retrieved from http://mycareermanager.blogspot.com/2009/07/proxemics-
psychology-of-positioning-use.html
Harrison, B., Ishii, H., & Chignell, M. H. (n.d). An empirical study on orientation of
shared workspaces and interpersonal spaces in video-mediated collaboration. Retrieved from
http://www.dgp.utoronto.ca/OTP/papers/video.mediated.collaboration/ishii.html
Sheppard, M. (1996, July). Proxemics. Retrieved from http://www.cs.unm.edu/~sheppard/proxemics.htm
10. Do we have evidence that animals, apart from humans, demonstrate the capacity for spatial thinking?
Bird migration facts. Zoological Society of Milwaukee. Retrieved from
http://www.zoosociety.org/Conservation/BWB-ASF/Library/BirdMigrationFacts.php
Jensen, R. (2006). Behaviorism, latent learning, and cognitive maps: Needed revisions in introductory
psychology textbooks. The Behavior Analyst, 29, 187–209.
Montgomery, J. C., & Walker, M. M. (2001). Orientation and navigation in Elamsobranchs: Which way
forward? Environmental Biology of Fishes, 60, 109–116.
Pigeons and World War One. History Learning Site. Retrieved from
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/pigeons_and_world_war_one.htm
Raver, A. (1994, December 11). CUTTINGS; Now it can be told: All about squirrels and nuts. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/11/nyregion/cuttings-now-it-can-be-told-all-about-
squirrels-and-nuts.html
Wolf behavior 101. Retrieved from http://www.wolfcenter.org/wolf-behavior.aspx
11. If spatial thinking is so pervasive, is it reflected in our language?
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Original
edition, 1980.
Lehrer, J. (2009, November 20). The reading brain. Science Blogs. Retrieved from
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/11/20/the-reading-brain-1/
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 75

Nelson, L. D., & Simmons, J. P. (2009). On southbound ease and northbound fees: Literal consequences
of the metaphoric link between vertical position and cardinal direction. Journal of Marketing Research, 46,
715–724.
Rivers that flow north. World Atlas. Retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/riversno.htm
Rosenberg, M. Rivers flowing north. About Geography. Retrieved from
http://geography.about.com/od/learnabouttheearth/a/northrivers.htm
Sanger-Katz, M. (2010, March/April). This side up. Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2783
Spatial metaphor in sign language poetry. Retrieved from
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/research/sites/micsl/downloads/research-materials/spatialmetaphorandi-
dentity.pdf
Sutton-Spence, R. Spatial metaphor and expressions of identity in sign language poetry. Retrieved from
http://www.metaphorik.de/19/sutton-spence.pdf
Why we use spatial metaphors, like high and low, for emotions – and how they can help you feel better.
(2010, March 30). Science Codex. Retrieved from http://www.sciencecodex.com/to_remember_the_good_
times_reach_for_the_sky
12. Is there evidence that our ancestors were spatial thinkers?
Clark, L. (2000, February 15). Polynesia’s genius navigators. NOVA. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/polynesia-genius-navigators.html
Desert survival: Navigation. Lawrence of Arabia. PBS. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/revolt/navigation.html
Lai, L. (2012, June 22). The riddle of the statues of Easter Island, solved? ABC News. Retrieved from
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/06/the-riddle-of-the-statues-of-easter-island-solved
Marchant, J. (2011, January 31). Did Vikings navigate by polarized light? Retrieved from
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110131/full/news.2011.58.html
Odenwald, S. Technology through time, Issue #72: Ancient astronomical alignments. NASA.
Retrieved from http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2011/articles/ttt_72.php
Prehistoric tools. About.Com Archaeology. Retrieved from
http://archaeology.about.com/od/tooltypes/Prehistoric_Tools.htm
Roman aqueducts. Roman History. Retrieved from http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-aqueducts.php
Taylor, R. (2012, March/April). How a Roman aqueduct works. Archaeology Archive, 65(2). Retrieved from
http://archive.archaeology.org/1203/features/how_a_roman_aqueduct_works.html
13. Is there spatial thinking prevalent in the video games that children (and adults) play? Will all the hours
that my children spend playing video games make them better spatial thinkers?
Dewar, G. (2011–2012). Improving spatial skills in children and teens: Evidence-based activities and tips.
Parenting Science. Retrieved from http://www.parentingscience.com/spatial-skills.html
Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2007). Action video game experience alters the spatial resolution of vision.
Psychological Science, 18, 88–94. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01853.x
Play your way to the top. (2008, December 18). The Age/Digital Life. Retrieved from
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/play-your-way-to-the-top-20090615-ccgj.html#ixzz25ZGWPpOH
Playing video games reduces sex differences in spatial skills. (2007, October 26). Science Daily.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024145626.htm
Schmidt, M. E., & Vandewater, E. A. (2008, Spring). Media and attention, cognition, and school achieve-
ment. Children and Electronic Media, 18(1). Retrieved from http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/
publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=57&sectionid=256
Spatial intelligence and learning center. Retrieved from http://spatiallearning.org/
76 THE PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO SPATIAL THINKING

Spatial reasoning. National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science. Retrieved from
http://www.iwitts.org/proven-practices/retention-sub-topics/spatial-reasoning
Yates, M. (2009, September 3). What are the benefits of Tetris? BBC News. Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8233850.stm
14. Can you describe the connections between using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial
thinking?
Lee, J. W., & Bednarz, B. (2009). Effect of GIS learning on spatial thinking. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education, 33, 183–198. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03098260802276714
National Research Council. (2006). Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Cur-
riculum. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.
php?record_id=11019
Schöning, J., Hecht, B., Raubal, M., Krüger, A., Marsh, M., & Rohs, M. (2008). Improving interac-
tion with virtual globes through spatial thinking: Helping users ask “why?”. In Proceedings of the 13th
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI ’08). ACM, New York, NY (pp. 129–138).
doi:10.1145/1378773.1378790
Sinton, D., & Lund, J. (2007). Understanding place: GIS and mapping across the curriculum. Redlands, CA:
Esri Press. Retrieved from http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=108&
moduleID=0
15. Education is supposed to help us become “critical thinkers.” Are there connections between critical and
spatial thinking?
Goodchild, M., & Janelle, D. (2010). Toward critical spatial thinking in the social sciences and humanities.
GeoJournal, 75, 3–13. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2863328/
Goodchild, M. R. (2006, Fall). The fourth R? Rethinking GIS education. ArcNews. Retrieved from
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall06articles/the-fourth-r.html
Graphicacy. Innovation Design in Education. Retrieved from
http://theasideblog.blogspot.com/p/graphicacy.html
Literacy, numeracy, graphicacy. YouTube video. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZvsZtUfQQs
16. How is spatial thinking being addressed in formal school settings? Is it part of any curricula?
Hill, C., Corbett, C., St. Rose, A. (2010, March 21). Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineer-
ing, and math. American Association of University Women. Retrieved from http://www.aauw.org/research/
why-so-few/
National Council for Geographic Education. (2012). Geography for Life: National Geography Standards (2nd
ed.). Washington, DC: NCGE. Retrieved from http://www.ncge.org/geography-for-life
National Research Council. (2006). Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Cur-
riculum. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.
php?record_id=11019
Wai, J. (2012, March 11). Why don’t we value spatial intelligence? Finding the next Einstein. Psychology
Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201203/why-dont-
we-value-spatial-intelligence
Wai, J. Three reasons why schools neglect spatial intelligence. Finding the next Einstein. Psychology Today.
Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201208/three-reasons-why-
schools-neglect-spatial-intelligence
17. I’ve never heard of spatial thinking before. Is this really just something that a few academics are talking
about?
Learning Spatially at the University of Redlands. Retrieved from http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/lens/
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 77

Spatial@UCSB, Center for Spatial Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara. Retrieved from
http://www.spatial.ucsb.edu/
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center. Retrieved from http://spatiallearning.org/
What is geoliteracy? National Geographic. Retrieved from
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/geoliteracy/?ar_a=1
CHAPTER 11
National Council for Geographic Education. (2012). Geography for Life: National Geography Standards (2nd
ed.). Washington, DC: NCGE. Retrieved from http://www.ncge.org/geography-for-life
PHOTO CREDITS
Page 14: Liverpool street station at rush hour, Keith Gentry/Shutterstock.com
Page 15: (left) Cars parked on a NYC street, Roman Striga/Shutterstock.com; (right) Ballroom dance in
motion, Richard Goldberg/Shutterstock.com
Page 16: Conductor before military band, Kosarev Alexander/Shutterstock.com
Page 17: Rube Goldberg Diagram, Artwork Copyright© and TM Rube Goldberg Inc. All Rights Reserved.
RUBE GOLDBERG© is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. All materials used with permission.
rubegoldberg.com
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Page 19: (left) Old sun clock dial, vintage sundial, Successo/Shutterstock.com; (right) The Western Wall,
Jerusalem, Kim Briers /Shutterstock.com
Page 20: Hurricane tracks over historic time, http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2012/08/13/noaa-provides-easy-
access-historical-hurricane-tracks
Page 21: (top) US property. No trespassing, AdStock RF/Shutterstock.com; (middle) Tectonic plates,
subduction zone, Daulon/Shutterstock.com; (bottom) City road interchange, Maria Skaldina/Shutterstock.
com
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erarchy structure chart, John T Takai/Shutterstock.com; (bottom right) Hand playing chess, Randy Lewis/
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Page 26: Shapes of continents to hypothesize drift and plate tectonics, a. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conti-
nental_drift b. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Snider-Pellegrini_Wegener_fos-
sil_map.svg/2000px-Snider-Pellegrini_Wegener_fossil_map.svg.png
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COVER
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‘Mind Puzzle: Find the correct missing part! Answer: C’ - VOOK/Shutterstock.com
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‘Electronic engineer solving problems’ - Dariush M/Shutterstock.com
 About the Authors
Diana Stuart Sinton is a geographer who works for the University Consortium
for Geographic Information Science. She likes to teach, read, write, and talk
about GIS, geography education, and spatial thinking. Since the late 1990s,
she has pursued these activities under direction and support from the National
Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Esri, the W.
M. Keck Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the European Union,
and several universities, including the University of Redlands. You can learn
more about her professional experiences at dianamaps.com and teachGIS.org.

Sarah Witham Bednarz is a professor of geography at Texas A&M University

and a recovering high school teacher. She was part of the team that developed
Learning to Think Spatially and co-chaired the Geography Education Research
Committee for the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education project.
From 2005 to 2009, Sarah directed a K-12 project Advancing Geospatial Skills
in Science and Social Science.

Phil Gersmehl grew up surrounded by teachers: both parents, a

grandfather, everyuncle, several cousins, wife, and father-in-law. After a PhD
in geography from the University of Georgia, he taught at Concordia Teachers
College, the University of Minnesota, and the City University of New York.
His research focus has always been on the border between disciplines—bet-
ween erosion-control engineering and the origin and propagation of error in
resource GIS, between agricultural economics and behavioral psychology, and
now between neuroscience, educational policy, and environmental modeling.
Thanks in part to the New York subway system and a job that required a dozen
15-minute trips per week, standing on a train whose swaying precluded most
other activities, he has read several thousand articles about spatial reasoning, in
more than 300 journals in a dozen disciplines.

78
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 79

Bob Kolvoord is a professor of integrated science and technology at James

Madison University, where he also serves as Interim Dean of the College of
Integrated Science and Technology. His research focuses on use of geospati-
al technologies in K-12 classrooms and how students’ spatial thinking skills
develop as they use these tools. He is the co-creator of the Geospatial Semester
and a co-author of three books on the use of GIS and remote sensing in decision
making.

David Uttal is a professor of psychology and education at Northwestern

University. His interests are in the relation between spatial ability and STEM
education, the development of map-reading skills, and methods for enhancing
spatial thinking.
NATIONA L COUNCIL FOR GEOGR A PHIC EDUCATION
The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) is a non-profit organiza-
tion, chartered in 1915 to enhance the status and quality of geography teaching and
learning. NCGE supports geography teaching at all levels from Kindergarten through
University. Our members include U.S. and International teachers, professors, students,
businesses, and others who support geographic education. For more information please
visit www.ncge.org.

2013 NATIONA L COUNCIL OR GEOGR A PHIC EDUC ATION

OFFICERS & E X ECUTI V E STA FF

Paul T. Gray Jr., President

Russellville High School, AR

Eric J. Fournier, Past-President

Samford University, AL

Howard G. Johnson, Vice-President Finance

Piedmont, AL

Michael N. DeMers, Vice-President External Relations

New Mexico State University, NM

Susan E. Hume, Vice-President Research

Southern Illinois University, IL

Ellen J. Foster, Vice-President Curriculum and Instruction

University of Mississippi, MS

Richard B. Schultz, Vice-President Publications and Products

Elmhurst College, IL

Osa Brand, Director of Project Development

National Council for Geographic Education, Great Falls, VA

Jane Purcell, Recording Secretary

Norman Public Schools, OK

Zachary R. Dulli, Director of Operations

National Council for Geographic Education, Washington DC

Jacqueline L. Waite, Director of Educational Affairs

National Council for Geographic Education, Washington DC
Also available from the National Council for Geographic Education

Geography For Life: National Geography Standards, Second Edition

Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, Second Edition describes the geographic
perspectives, content knowledge illustrated by 18 standards, and skills needed to become a
geographically informed person. Geography for Life is an essential reference for:
• District and state curriculum and assessment developer
• K-12 inservice and preservice educators in geography and social studies
• University faculty
• Home schooling organizations and parents
• Informal educators
• Textbook authors and publishers of instructional materials
Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, Second Edition was developed by the
Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP) on behalf of the Associa-
tion of American Geographers, American Geographical Society, National Council for Geo-
graphic Education, and National Geographic Society. Available to order at www.ncge.org

AP Human Geography
By Jody Smothers Marcello
AP Human Geography: Engaging Students in Constructing an Understand of Human
Geography is designed in three facets important to success in AP Human Geography.
1) Synthesis: Due to the nature of geography, the disciplinary mind in geography
naturally demands synthesis. At its most basic level, geography synthesizes concepts
from the human and physical worlds. 2) Inquiry: Geography is a field of inquiry. The
lessons chosen for inclusion in this publication engage students in the inquiry process
and our organized so as to give teachers a way to manage this process within the APHG
classroom and course. And 3) Spatial Data: Students need more practice reading
maps. This does not mean learning place locations, but being able to critically interpret
the information presented. Students who were able to read and understand the maps
generally got the highest scores. Available at www.ncge.org

A Geographic View of World History

by Herb Thomson
A Geographic View of World History is thirty-two lessons created to supplement and
enhance a standard world history curriculum. Designed primarily for students in their
first or second year of high school, the lessons and concepts included are easy to use or
adapt for any classroom. While history is primarily a temporal social science, geography
is a spatial one. As long as their unique perspectives are appreciated and valued, when
taken together they can be a truly powerful combination and the key to understanding
our past, present, and future. Refresh your own understanding of geography, engage stu-
dents and help them reach a higher level of geographic literacy with this great resource.
Available at www.ncge.org