IDENTIFYING SIGNIFICANT SPATIAL THINKING SKILLS FOR LEARNING AND PRACTICING HYDROGEOLOGY

A large body of Geoscience Education Research informs the spatial thinking training of geologists, including a spatial training workbook specifically developed for structural geology and mineralogy. However, hydrogeology, which includes fluid dynamics in a relatively inaccessible substrate, may require unique spatial thinking skills that have not yet been documented. This situation potentially hampers efforts to train students for careers in hydrogeology and respond to societal needs for groundwater resources. Our study seeks to identify which spatial thinking skills are important in hydrogeology among a cross-section of novices (undergraduate students) to experts (professional academic and industry hydrogeologists). We aim to produce a model that quantifies how spatial thinking skills and hydrogeology knowledge predict performance on typical hydrogeology tasks provided to students in undergraduate hydrogeology courses. To identify which spatial thinking skills to measure, we surveyed expert hydrogeologists and found that skills related to mental rotation, penetrative thinking, spatial scanning, and spatial frames of reference were perceived as important. With input from university hydrogeology instructors and pilot-testing with students, we developed a test of hydrogeology knowledge. We also developed a contaminated site characterization task in which participants use maps and site data to complete a cross section, draw a potentiometric surface map, complete a three-point problem, and contour a contaminant plume. We used these instruments to collect data from a sample of novice to expert hydrogeologists and collected think-aloud data from a subset of participants as they worked through the suite of tests and tasks. Here we share findings from the quantitative model, suggesting which spatial thinking skills predict performance on the site characterization task. Future research will include working with students in field and classroom settings to more fully understand how students use (or do not use) the spatial thinking skills identified as significant to success. This knowledge can be applied to the development of groundwater education modules that train users in the kind of spatial thinking that is needed to solve local- and global-scale groundwater problems.