MODELING 3D STRUCTURES WITH PLAYDOUGH ENHANCES SPATIAL THINKING SKILLS

Spatial thinking in three dimensions is integral to geoscience work, but often challenging for students. We used playdough--a familiar, inexpensive, adaptable medium--to help undergraduate geology students grasp course content on geologic structures, maps, and cross sections. This mixed-methods study focuses on how playdough modeling supported students’ learning in a sophomore-level course (N=38) at a large midwestern university. We integrated playdough modeling in all aspects of the course: interactive lectures, labs, and field trips. Most models were built by the instruction-research team, and students built or manipulated some models.

We documented the playdough models used, collected course assessments from students, and surveyed students on the helpfulness of playdough. Student surveys were administered during a three-day field trip at the end of the second week of the course, at the mid-term exam, and after the final exam. The surveys asked students to rank how helpful they found playdough at that time (quantitative) and to describe how they think the playdough helped them (qualitative). The qualitative responses were coded using a list of geological spatial skills.

The quantitative responses indicated that all students thought that playdough use supported their learning. Quantitative analyses linking responses about playdough helpfulness to exam scores are generally inconclusive, because of the low variability in how helpful they rated playdough in their learning and the high variability in student assessment scores. Qualitative analyses from survey questions suggest that students overwhelmingly found playdough helpful in enhancing their 3D visualizations of geologic structures. Most frequently students found the playdough models useful for disembedding (e.g., simplifying or highlighting major features). Students also reported that playdough supported mental animation and visual penetrative thinking. Although students' grades were not correlated with their playdough helpfulness ratings, we posit that this is because playdough was helpful for all students, not just those who found geologic structures challenging. We therefore recommend playdough as a pedagogical tool for undergraduate geology courses for its accessibility and assistance in supporting student learning.