SPATIAL VISUALIZATION'S RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENTS' ABILITY TO DO GEOLOGIC SPATIAL REASONING PROBLEMS

In this study, three components of students’ spatial visualization are tested (spatial relations, spatial manipulation, and visual penetrative ability) along with geologic questions presumed to be related to these three spatial abilities. These questions are derived from course learning goals specific to the Structural Geology and Field Geology courses at The University of British Columbia. This new test, Spatial Visualizations Student Survey (SVSS), has been developed to quantify how students’ spatial visualization abilities develop after taking EOSC 223 (Introduction to Field Techniques) and EOSC 323 (Structural Geology I).

Two t-tests were done to the respective group results. The first t-test was done to both groups separated by “Good” and “Bad” spatial reasoning (above 45% or below 45% respectively). This yielded a P(T<=t) one-tail that was at 2.16*10^-7 which is statistically significant and the mean geology scores were 45.3373 for the Beginner group and 63.2804 for the Advanced group. The second t-test was done to both groups separated by Advanced and Beginner education level. The second t-test yielded a P(T<=t) one-tail that was 8.38*10^-7 which is statistically significant and the mean geology scores were 47.4654 for the Beginner group and 67.1275 for the Advanced group. Regression analysis was done on spatial relations, spatial manipulation and visual penetrative ability to obtain r² values. The r² values were 0.1684 for Spatial Relations, 0.3093 for Spatial Manipulation and 0.2184 for Visual Penetrative Ability. The r² values show the predictive ability of these spatial visualization tasks as a correlate to geologic spatial reasoning tasks.