Assessment of Spatial Visualization Skills in Freshman Seminar
- Conference
- Location
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Atlanta, Georgia
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2013
- Start Date
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June 23, 2013
- End Date
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June 26, 2013
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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First-Year Programs
- Page Count
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12
- Page Numbers
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23.228.1 - 23.228.12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--19242
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/19242
- Download Count
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621
Paper Authors
Samantha Islam University of South Alabama
Dr. Samantha Islam, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of South Alabama. She received her B.S. from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and her M.S.C.E. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. Her research interests include application of econometric and statistical methods to a variety of transportation engineering problems, including highway safety, traffic safety and transportation planning. Dr. Islam is actively involved in developing an undergraduate and graduate research program in Transportation Engineering.
Samuel H. Russ University of South Alabama
Kevin D. White Ph.D. University of South Alabama
Dr. White is a professor and chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of South Alabama. He is also chair of the entering freshmen course committee for Intro to Engineering. Dr. White teaches throughout the civil engineering curriculum, from the Intro to Engineering course (freshman year) to CE Design (senior year); and to graduate level environmental engineering courses.
Abstract
Assessment of Spatial Visualization Skills in Freshman SeminarThis paper presents an attempt to assess the spatial visualization skills of first year freshmanengineering students. A freshman seminar course is offered at the University of South Alabamafor first time engineering students that assist with maximizing the student’s potential to achieveacademic success and to adjust responsibly to the individual and interpersonal challengespresented by college life. The objective of introducing the spatial visualization component in thefreshman seminar course is to provide the incoming engineering students the prerequisite spatialskills and help them succeed in their subsequent engineering courses. The Purdue SpatialVisualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) was administered as a pretest to assess the spatialvisualization skills of the students in the beginning of Fall semester of 2012. Brief lectures alongwith a set of computer based exercises were used as the instructional tools to improve the spatialvisualization skills of the students. A comprehensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation willbe conducted at the end of the semester to assess if the students enjoyed their lessons on spatialvisualization, and if the instructions improved the spatial visualization skills of the students,especially who did not do well in the pretest. The paper also intends to investigate the role ofspatial ability of students in choices of engineering major by gender.
Islam, S., & Russ, S. H., & White, K. D. (2013, June), Assessment of Spatial Visualization Skills in Freshman Seminar Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19242
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