Spatial visualization – the ability to imagine objects from different angles – is a key STEM problem-solving skill. Yet it rarely is taught.

That’s a problem, because SV skills can vary widely by gender, race, and cultural background and probably accounts for much of the STEM performance gap.

For example, almost a century of evidence has shown that men typically outperform women in SV abilities, particularly in rotations, often by wide margins. And recent studies  by Jacob Segil and his colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder’s College of Engineering have found big disparities by world region.When they administered a 30-question test of SV skills to incoming first-year engineering students, only about a quarter of women from the Middle East passed, compared with 52 percent of their male counterparts – and 86 percent of domestic U.S. students.

 

The good news: SV skills can be learned using pencil, paper, PlayDough, and other inexpensive materials.

The University of Colorado’s low-cost, four-workshop program closed the STEM achievement gap so well training is now required of all incoming engineering students. Like learning to ride a bicycle, once you gain the ability you never lose it, studies suggest.

Still better: The training curriculum is now available for free online so that any class or school can implement it and begin to close the SV gaps.

Best of all: CU Boulder’s TeachEngineering has an SV curriculum for middle-school students called Let’s Learn About Spatial Viz! Developed by the College of Engineering’s Engineering Plus program, the K-12 version includes four hands-on activities and aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards.

View the CU Boulder SV research and teaching resources. Learn more about the program in “The Mind’s Eye,” a teaching feature by Mary Lord in ASEE Prism‘s October issue.