Teaching Spatial Reasoning

Spatial reasoning is a skill that can be acquired at a very young age. Children see many objects of varying shapes and sizes throughout the day. For example, children know that their parents are bigger than them. Because of this, children take up less room than their parents and can fit into smaller spaces. This can be seen most prominently in the car. Children have to use smaller car seats than their parents because they are smaller than their parents. While children see these different spatial relations, they do not know how to use their spatial reasoning skills to a higher degree unless they are taught. Because of this, it is crucial for educators to teach spatial reasoning to their students. There are many reasons for why educators should

Being able to reason mathematically is crucial for student success in higher-level math and science courses, as well as a possible career in the STEM field. If students are able to manipulate one object to resemble another object in elementary school, then they will be able to have a better understanding of geometry because they know how to use spatial reasoning to solve problems. On the other hand, if students struggle with manipulating objects and determining how many small squares fit into a large square, they may not develop the spatial reasoning skills necessary to do geometric problems in higher-level math. Attaining these spatial reasoning skills also provide multiple entry points and access to mathematics as a whole. Students use math skills not only in math classes, but also in other classes such as chemistry, physics, and economics. By teaching students spatial reasoning skills at a young age, they have the ability to acquire the necessary math skills to achieve in higher-level math classes and math-related career fields. Spatial reasoning is an essential aspect of math education. By acquiring spatial reasoning skills, students also acquire mental rotation, visual spatial reasoning, and spatial vocabulary. Students are taught to think about how an object will look if they rotate it before they do it. They mentally visualize what an object will look like before that object is produced in

As far as I can recall, the only practice I did with spatial reasoning was in preparation for standardized tests. Different worksheets were given to us that showed different images and what they would look like if they were rotated, mirrored, or flipped. We were also given two images; one was the original image and the other one showed something that had been done to the original image. From there, we determined what had been done to the image. For example, if the original image was mirrored, we had to indicate that on our worksheets. We also did a project in seventh grade in which we made tessellations. This project taught us how shapes fit together and how shapes can be manipulated to create an ongoing pattern. Overall, I would say that my spatial reasoning skills could be better. I feel that using tangible objects, such as pattern blocks, would have helped me develop stronger spatial reasoning skills. Using pattern blocks at an elementary age helps students see how shapes fit together and how shapes can be manipulated to form other shapes. For example, six equilateral triangles make a hexagon. Knowing these different techniques would have helped me in higher-level math classes such as