Spatial Thinking in Environmental Contexts

by Sandra Lach Arlinghaus

Author	: Sandra Lach Arlinghaus
Publisher	: CRC Press
Total Pages	: 189
Release	: 2019-07-11
Genre	: Science
ISBN	: 1351803905

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Spatial Thinking in Environmental Contexts: Maps, Archives, and Timelines cultivates the spatial thinking "habit of mind" as a critical geographical view of how the world works, including how environmental systems function, and how we can approach and solve environmental problems using maps, archives, and timelines. The work explains why spatial thinking matters as it helps readers to integrate a variety of methods to describe and analyze spatial/temporal events and phenomena in disparate environmental contexts. It weaves together maps, GIS, timelines, and storytelling as important strategies in examining concepts and procedures in analyzing real-world data and relationships. The work thus adds significant value to qualitative and quantitative research in environmental (and related) sciences. Features Written by internationally renowned experts known for taking complex ideas and finding accessible ways to more broadly understand and communicate them. Includes real-world studies explaining the merging of disparate data in a sensible manner, understandable across several disciplines. Unique approach to spatial thinking involving animated maps, 3D maps, GEOMATs, and story maps to integrate maps, archives, and timelines—first across a single environmental example and then through varied examples. Merges spatial and temporal views on a broad range of environmental issues from traditional environmental topics to more unusual ones involving urban studies, medicine, municipal/governmental application, and citizen-scientist topics. Provides easy to follow step-by-step instructions to complete tasks; no prior experience in data processing is needed.

Learning to Think Spatially

by National Research Council

Author	: National Research Council
Publisher	: National Academies Press
Total Pages	: 333
Release	: 2005-02-03
Genre	: Education
ISBN	: 0309092086

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Learning to Think Spatially examines how spatial thinking might be incorporated into existing standards-based instruction across the school curriculum. Spatial thinking must be recognized as a fundamental part of Kâ€"12 education and as an integrator and a facilitator for problem solving across the curriculum. With advances in computing technologies and the increasing availability of geospatial data, spatial thinking will play a significant role in the information-based economy of the twenty-first century. Using appropriately designed support systems tailored to the Kâ€"12 context, spatial thinking can be taught formally to all students. A geographic information system (GIS) offers one example of a high-technology support system that can enable students and teachers to practice and apply spatial thinking in many areas of the curriculum.

Space in Mind

by Daniel R. Montello

Author	: Daniel R. Montello
Publisher	: MIT Press
Total Pages	: 351
Release	: 2014-11-21
Genre	: Education
ISBN	: 0262028298

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The current "spatial turn" in many disciplines reflects an emerging scholarly interest in space and spatiality as central components in understanding the natural and cultural worlds. In Space in Mind, leading researchers from a range of disciplines examine the implications of research on spatial thinking and reasoning for education and learning. Their contributions suggest ways in which recent work in such fields as spatial cognition, geographic information systems, linguistics, artifical intelligence, architecture, and data visualization can inform spatial approaches to learning and education. After addressing the conceptual foundations of spatial thinking for education and learning, the book considers visualization, both external (for example, diagrams and maps) and internal (imagery and other mental spatial representations); embodied cognition and spatial understanding; and the development of specific spatial curricula and literacies. -- from dust jacket.

Spatial Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

by Graeme S. Cumming

Author	: Graeme S. Cumming
Publisher	: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages	: 260
Release	: 2011-02-09
Genre	: Science
ISBN	: 9400703074

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Spatial Resilience is a new and exciting area of interdisciplinary research. It focuses on the influence of spatial variation – including such things as spatial location, context, connectivity, and dispersal – on the resilience of complex systems, and on the roles that resilience and self-organization play in generating spatial variation. Prof. Cumming provides a readable introduction and a first comprehensive synthesis covering the core concepts and applications of spatial resilience to the study of social-ecological systems. The book follows a trajectory from concepts through models, methods, and case study analysis before revisiting the central problems in the further conceptual development of the field. In the process, the author ranges from the movements of lions in northern Zimbabwe to the urban jungles of Europe, and from the collapse of past societies to the social impacts of modern conflict. The many case studies and examples discussed in the book show how the concept of spatial resilience can generate valuable insights into the spatial dynamics of social-ecological systems and contribute to solving some of the most pressing problems of our time. Although it has been written primarily for students, this book will provide fascinating reading for interdisciplinary scientists at all career stages as well as for the interested public. "Graeme Cumming, central in the development of resilience thinking and theory, has produced a wonderful book on spatial resilience, the first ever on this topic. The book will become a shining star, a classic in the explosion of new ideas and approaches to studying and understanding social-ecological systems." Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden

Spatial Mathematics

by Sandra Lach Arlinghaus

Author	: Sandra Lach Arlinghaus
Publisher	: CRC Press
Total Pages	: 302
Release	: 2013-06-26
Genre	: Mathematics
ISBN	: 146650532X

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In terms of statistics, GIS offers many connections. With GIS, data are gathered, displayed, summarized, examined, and interpreted to discover patterns. Spatial Mathematics: Theory and Practice through Mapping uses GIS as a platform to teach mathematical concepts and skills through visualization of numbers. It examines theory and practice from disparate academic disciplines such as geography, mathematics, physics, and general social science. This approach allows students to grapple with biodiversity, crime, natural hazards, climate, energy, water, and other relevant real-world issues of the twenty-first century. Includes QR Codes Linked to Animated Maps, a Mapping Activity Site, or to an Interactive Webpage, Creating an Interactive Resource That Stays Relevant The book integrates competing philosophical views of the world: synthesis and analysis. These two approaches yield different results and employ different tools. This book considers both approaches to looking at real-world issues that have mathematics as a critical, but often unseen, component. This approach shows readers how to use mathematics to consider the broad problem at hand and to explore diverse realms in the worlds of geography and mathematics and in their interface. A truly interdisciplinary text, the book bridges the worlds of mathematics and geography and demonstrates how they are inextricably linked. It takes advantage of the convergence in citizen science, STEM education, and mapping that help readers become critical consumers of data—understanding its content, quality, limitations, and benefits. It provides thorough grounding in the analytical, statistical, and computational skills required for working in any field that uses geospatial technologies—not just surveyors and remote sensing analysts.

Geospatial Technologies and Geography Education in a Changing World

by Osvaldo Muñiz Solari

Author	: Osvaldo Muñiz Solari
Publisher	: Springer
Total Pages	: 231
Release	: 2015-08-31
Genre	: Science
ISBN	: 4431555196

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This book is an initiative presented by the Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union. It focuses particularly on what has been learned from geospatial projects and research from the past decades of implementing geospatial technologies (GST) in formal and informal education. The objective of this publication is to inform an international audience of teachers, professionals, scholars, and policymakers about the state of the art and prospects of geospatial practices (GPs) as organized activities that use GST and lessons learned in relation to geographical education. GST make up an advanced body of knowledge developed by practitioners of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), global positioning systems, (GPS), and digital cartography (DC). GST have long been applied in many different sectors; however, their first use in higher education began in the early 1980s and then diffused to secondary schools during the 1990s. Starting with GIS and RS, it evolved into a much broader context, as GST expanded to include GPS and DC with new communication technologies and Internet applications. GST have been used around the world as a combination of tools and special techniques to make research, teaching, and learning more effective.

Discipline-Based Education Research

by National Research Council

Author	: National Research Council
Publisher	: National Academies Press
Total Pages	: 282
Release	: 2012-08-27
Genre	: Education
ISBN	: 0309254140

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The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.

Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years

by Brent Davis

Author	: Brent Davis
Publisher	: Routledge
Total Pages	: 187
Release	: 2015-04-17
Genre	: Education
ISBN	: 1317648110

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Over the past several years, "spatial reasoning" has gained renewed prominence among mathematics educators, as spatial skills are proving to be not just essential to mathematical understanding but also strong predictors of future success beyond the classroom in fields such as science, technology, and engineering. By exploring both primary and emergent dimensions, Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years helps define the concept of spatial reasoning and provides compelling evidence of the need for a clear focus within early education specifically. The authors review the research, look across current theories, and investigate implications for contemporary school mathematics pedagogy as they identify areas of inquiry necessary to bring a stronger spatial reasoning emphasis into the classroom. The book contains many classroom- or workshop-based vignettes, highlighting the complexity of spatial reasoning in educational practice, providing an in-depth analysis of spatial reasoning as it applies to classroom practice, and offering new ways of framing lessons to help young students hone their spatial reasoning abilities. The book concludes with a forward-looking agenda that contributes to developing a greater understanding of the role spatial reasoning plays in educational contexts and beyond. Supported by plentiful visual representations, Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years skillfully integrates the conceptual and the concrete, making this text a dynamic and accessible resource.

Recapturing Space: New Middle-Range Theory in Spatial Demography

by Frank M. Howell

Author	: Frank M. Howell
Publisher	: Springer
Total Pages	: 375
Release	: 2015-11-04
Genre	: Social Science
ISBN	: 3319228102

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With a unique focus on middle-range theory, this book details the application of spatial analysis to demographic research as a way of integrating and better understanding the different transitional components of the overall demographic transition. This book first details key concepts and measures in modern spatial demography and shows how they can be applied to middle-range theory to better understand people, places, communities and relationships throughout the world. Next, it shows middle-range theory in practice, from using spatial data as a proxy for social science statistics to examining the effect of "fracking” in Pennsylvania on the formation of new coalitions among environmental advocacy organizations. The book also traces future developments and offers some potential solutions to promoting and facilitating instruction in spatial demography. This volume is an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in courses involving spatial analyses in the social sciences, from sociology and political science to economics and educational research. In addition, scholars and others interested in the role that geographic context plays in relation to their research will find this book a helpful guide in further developing their work.