AN INVESTIGATION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' SPATIAL THINKING ABOUT GROUNDWATER

As human influence on water systems continues to grow, it is increasingly important that students – tomorrow’s global citizens – develop knowledge about these issues. However, undergraduate students may have limited knowledge about the water cycle, particularly groundwater. There have been various unique approaches to address this, one being modeling. However, interpreting a computer-based model may require spatial thinking skills. To address this challenge, we developed a multi-week project involving an array of activities to support undergraduate students’ use of a computer-based groundwater modeling tool in an intro-level, interdisciplinary water course. In the project, students used the model to complete a task involving a groundwater contaminant scenario. Here, we report findings from a study conducted in the context of two consecutive semesters: year 1 (n=56) and year 2 (n=45), the latter of which involved an intervention to more purposefully support students’ spatial thinking. We focus on how students’ spatial thinking abilities in relation to the groundwater model differ between semesters. To answer this, we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses on student tasks and clinical interviews. Findings suggest that students in year 2 could better understand concepts of space and tools of representation within the groundwater model. However, students in both years exhibited a relatively limited understanding of representation. Specifically, students struggle interpreting representations of water table contour lines. Interviews suggest the unit helped students learn about groundwater concepts they were not familiar with, such as groundwater flow and velocity. However, overall, these findings suggest students may struggle with certain aspects of spatial thinking in relation to the modeling tool, particularly interpreting 2D representations as their 3D structures. These findings have implications for undergraduate teaching and learning about groundwater.