Tim Shipley

Errors in Spatial Thinking: When students go wrong, what are they thinking and how can we help them? part of GET Spatial Learning:Blog
Over the years, we've each observed students make a wide variety of interesting mistakes in spatial thinking. In some cases, it's easy to understand how they arrive at their misunderstanding. In other ...

Expertise and Field-data Collection part of GET Spatial Learning:Blog
This blog post is written to serve as a starting point for a full paper on the field-data collection strategies, how they are likely to change with the availability of digital databases in the field, and what we ...

Trading zones combining cognitive psychology and disciplinary science part of GET Spatial Learning:Blog
This essay, part promissory note, is an effort to articulate why interdisciplinary research that includes cognitive science can yield discoveries that leap-frog work within component disciplines. The argument is ...

What would a Geoscience Education Research toolbox look like? part of GET Spatial Learning:Blog
This essay draws from our experience with the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, an NSF funded Science of Learning Center that aimed to understand and support the role of spatial thinking in STEM education. ...

Learning to Form Accurate Mental Models part of GET Spatial Learning:Blog
Drs. Alexandra Davatzes, Kristin Gagnier, Ilyse Resnick and Thomas F. Shipley wrote a featured article for Eos! Read it here: Eos - Learning to Form Accurate Mental Models

Why is teaching and learning about feedback loops hard? part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2020:Program:Oral Sessions:Oral Session II
Feedback loops provide a powerful explanatory framework for analyzing important Earth and environmental processes, such as climate change and predatory/prey balance. Our pilot research and review of the literature ...

Challenges in making meaning from Ground Motion Visualizations: The role of geoscience knowledge in interpreting dynamic spatiotemporal patterns part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Oral Sessions:Thursday B
The USArray Ground Motion Visualization (GMV) is an IRIS video product that illustrates seismic waves traveling away from an earthquake by depicting seismometers as symbols that vary in color according to recorded ...

Reasoning about Feedback Loops part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
Understanding the role of feedback loops in the geosciences and related fields is an important yet challenging topic for students and teachers alike. Grasping the patterns that tend to arise in dynamic systems, and ...

CogSketch worksheet: Promoting sketching in the geosciences with interactive technology part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Poster Sessions:Tuesday
Sketching is a valuable activity to help students develop spatial skills and understand difficult geoscience concepts. Yet, sketching is rarely implemented at the introductory level due to the time needed to grade ...

Teaching Spatial Thinking in Mineralogy, Structural Geology, and Sedimentology & Stratigraphy: Tools and Strategies from Cognitive Science Research part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
Spatial visualization is an essential skill in the STEM disciplines, including the geological sciences. Undergraduate students, including geoscience majors in upper-level courses, bring a wide range of spatial ...

What geoscience experts and novices look at and what they see when viewing geoscience data visualizations part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
This study investigated how geoscience novices and experts approach data visualizations made from an important type of geoscience data: shaded relief images made from a digital elevation model using a ...

Visualizing Geology: A Case Study of the Baraboo Ranges, Wisconsin part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Sunday Events
× A field trip to the Baraboo Ranges provides much more than a show-and-tell opportunity. It provides a unique opportunity to help students understand how to visualize geologic relationships at regional and ...

Teaching and Learning About Feedback Loops part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2021:Program:Morning Workshops:Teaching and Learning About Feedback Loops
Feedback loops (FLs) are a powerful concept for Earth educators in the 21st century. Reinforcing (aka "positive") feedback loops underlie many environmental problems, including climate change and ...

Engaging Your Students with Visual Representations: Why, What, and How part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2021:Program:Morning Workshops:Engaging your students with visual representations: Why, What, and How
Visual-spatial reasoning is important for understanding many of the structures and processes in the geosciences. To make learning more efficient, instructors must engage students using strategies that facilitate ...

Research at the Interface of DBER and Cognitive Science part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Morning Workshops:DBER and Cognitive Science
The workshop aims to strengthen ties between the cognitive science and Geoscience education communities. The first day will include presentations by cognitive scientists who have expertise in education research ...

Intro to Quantitative Education Research Methods part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Mini Workshops:Quantitative Ed Research
This session is for those who want to increase their ability to conduct education research and to evaluate published research. Participants will have a chance to learn about principles of statistical testing and ...