[Viz] Recruiting graduate student (fwd)

[Cathy Manduca]

Greetings-

This note comes from Tim Shipley, a cognitive scientist at Temple 
University working on a project on spatial cognition in geoscience.  He is 
looking for a graduate student.  I think very highly of Tim and would 
recommend this opportunity to any student who is interested in research on 
learning in the geosciences.   If you know of such a student, I hope you 
will share this information with them.

Cathy

------------ Forwarded Message ------------
Date: Friday, September 28, 2007 12:38 PM -0400
From: Thomas Shipley <tshipley at temple.edu>
To: Cathy Manduca <cmanduca at carleton.edu>
Subject: Recruiting graduate student

Cathy,

I would very much like to recruit a graduate student who has a geosciences
background.  If you know of anyone who might be interested in
grad school in cognitive science would you let know.  I am pretty sure we
could find some money to fly them to Philly if you think there are a good
candidate.  I sent the note below to Arlo Weil (at Bryn Mawr).


 If there are any undergraduate Geoscience majors who might be interested in
pursuing a graduate degree in Cognitive science please let them know of the
following opportunity:

There is a group of researchers including cognitive scientists and
geologists in the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC) who are
studying the cognitive processes of expert geologists and the educational
processes used to teach the geosciences. I think there is a very exciting
opportunity for a student with a solid background in the Geosciences to
apply their skills and knowledge to the study of the mind.  I would be
delight to have any student who might be interested  come to visit my lab
where we study the role of perception in geosciences (we study perceptual
skills of geoscientists using behavioral tasks, eye-tracking, computational
modeling, and EEG).

Below is the vision statement for SILC:

The SILC Vision

Spatial thinking is both a key intellectual issue in cognitive science and a
critically important aspect of problem solving in science, engineering and
mathematics. It provides the foundation for a wide range of reasoning and
communication skills, as varied as the design of buildings, the solution of
mathematics problems, and the use of spatial metaphor in everyday language.

    * Spatial intelligence enables us to find our way in the world and to
make tools, by encoding and transforming information about objects, their
configurations, and their locations.
    * In the natural sciences, spatial thinking often provides unique
insights. For example, geoscientists use visualizations to understand the
processes that affect the formation of the Earth. Engineers use sketches and
diagrams to anticipate how various forces may affect the design of a
structure.
    * In medicine, the ability of a neurosurgeon to visualize particular
brain areas from MRI may determine the outcome of a surgical procedure.

Thus, progress and performance in various science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) fields is strongly tied to improving people's ability
to reason about spatial configurations and their properties.

More generally, an informed citizen in the 21st century must be fluent at
processing spatial abstractions including graphs, diagrams, and other
visualizations. Research that reveals how to increase the level of spatial
functioning in the population could therefore significantly improve the
effectiveness of the workforce. In addition, such research could lead to the
reduction of gender and SES differences in spatial functioning and thus have
an important impact on social equity. Yet despite the importance of spatial
learning, relatively little research has addressed how it can be shaped and
improved.

Making an investment in spatial learning now could lead to tremendous future
benefits. For comparison, consider how substantial investments in reading
research approximately 20 years ago catalyzed progress in that field,
leading to advances in the understanding of the cognitive and neurological
processes involved in reading that provided the foundation for developing
effective strategies to combat illiteracy and reading disability. We are now
in a comparable position with respect to spatial learning -- we are poised
to make rapid progress that will have a major impact on education and
practice.

We therefore have established the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center
(SILC). Our overarching goals are

   1. To understand spatial learning
   2. To use this knowledge to develop programs and technologies that will
transform educational practice and support the capability of all children
and adolescents to develop the skills required to compete in a global
economy.

The core theme of SILC is that spatial cognition is malleable, and hence
that spatial learning can be fostered by effective technology and education.
This position is based on recent evidence from multiple sources:

    * Developmental research now indicates that cognitive growth is not
simply the unfolding of a maturational program but instead involves
considerable learning.
    * New neuroscience research indicates substantial developmental
plasticity in neural growth.
    * Cognitive and educational research has shown us significant effects of
experience on spatial skill.

SILC involves a consortium of researchers from cognitive science, spanning
psychology, computer science, education, and neuroscience, and practicing
geoscientists and engineers who are particularly interested in spatial
thinking in their fields. By tightly linking research and educational
practice, we hope to achieve these goals.


-- 
Thomas F. Shipley
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Psychology
Temple University
Weiss Hall
1701 N 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Vision Lab Web page: http://astro.temple.edu/~tshipley/
SILC web page: www.spatiallearning.org
Biological Motion Point-light Action Archive:
http://astro.temple.edu/~tshipley/mocap.html




---------- End Forwarded Message ----------



Dr. Cathryn A. Manduca
Director, Science Education Resource Center
Executive Director, National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Carleton College
Northfield, MN  55057
507 646-7096
cmanduca at carleton.edu
serc.carleton.edu