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Table 3 Spatial skills used in seismic explorer

From: Focus on the notice: evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation

Spatial skill

Definition

Curriculum activity

SE visualizations

Spatial orientation

Ability to find a spatial relationship in reference to a student’s body

Use spatial orientation to interpret the maps from overhead to see height of mountains, depth of ocean, and depth of earthquakes within Earth

Mental Rotation

Ability to quickly and precisely rotate either 2D or 3D figures

Use mental rotation to interpret the motion of the 3D slice as the slice is pulled out of ground and rotated to show the side of the slice as well as rotated around the axis

Spatial visualization

Ability to perform a complex spatial procedure with many steps

Use spatial visualization between the key and the map to interpret magnitude and depth of earthquakes, topographical data on land and in ocean, and temporal data as earthquakes are embedded on the map