KQED News Mind/Shift – Deborah Farmer Kris
“Spatial skills don’t get a lot of attention in K-12 education, despite research pointing to the link between spatial reasoning and academic achievement, creativity and the arts. So when Linda Swarlis first happened upon the research for herself, she had a revelation. “This was a game changer for me,” said Swarlis, director of information services at Columbus School for Girls, a PreK-12 school in Ohio. “I had never heard of the impact of spatial ability on engineering and mathematics success.” Swarlis then learned about Sheryl Sorby’s work on retaining struggling female engineering college students by teaching them how to mentally manipulate objects and boost their visualization skills. But Swarlis wanted to engage students in spatial skills training before they got to college; she wanted to find ways to offer more spatial experiences to students at her school.”(more)