Spatial thinking• Fundamental spatial concepts

– atomic elements of spatial reasoning– domain-independent?– space-independent?– lists

• Union of published lists– 130

• Relationships– specialization/generalization– formalization, metrics– overlaps with

Geospatial technologies• Implementations of spatial concepts

– formalized

• Legacies– 510 procedures in the ArcGIS 9.2 toolkit– no organizing principles– the potential for a new user interface

• Technology is becoming transparent– in a world of Google Earth what does everyone

need to know?

Intellectual merit• Geographic space is familiar

– a widespread belief that intuition is sufficient– science of the familiar

• Are there spatial concepts that are not intuitive?– and that need to be learned, understood?– conditional on education level?– what are the fundamental spatial concepts that

are not intuitive to undergraduates?– in specified discipline?– how would you identify a spatial thinker?

Other spaces

the human brain

molecular chemistry

the cosmos

nanoscience

UCSB is spatial