Slicing Rocks part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine images of a bowl of rocks, then several rock piles, then outcrops of conglomerate and breccia. They sketch slices through the bowl of rocks, match photos of rock piles to sketches of slices through those piles, and then apply what they've learned to describe the conglomerate and breccia.

Deciphering Mineral Structure Diagrams part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students compare mineral structures shown in ball-and-stick, space filling, and polyhedral diagrams.

Understanding Crystal Symmetry via Gestures part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students use a small mirror to explore the meaning of mirror symmetry, and then use their hands to gesture mirror planes for a group of familiar objects. They also explore the rotational symmetry of a group of familiar objects, and then use their hands to gesture the rotational axes and rotation. Finally, they use gestures to show mirror and rotational symmetry of wooden crystal models.

Folds and Cleavage part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students explore the geometric relationship between bedding/cleavage intersections and fold axes for axial planar, fanning, and transecting cleavage.

Restraining Bends and Releasing Bends part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students use gestures to re-create the motion of fault blocks adjacent to restraining bends and releasing bends. They then answer a few questions about a map view of the San Andreas Fault and two of its bends.

Primary Structures and Rotation part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students gesture the orientations of cross-bedded sandstones, and in particular the relationship between a single cross bed and the bed sets. They do this for photos of undeformed and deformed cross-bedding.

Comparing Phyllosilicate Structures part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students compare the chemistry and structures of biotite, muscovite, and chlorite.

Using Gesture to Support Spatial Thinking part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
This activity highlights the value of gesture in communicating spatial information. It consists of two short exercises. In the first, students are asked to pair up and describe to their partner how to navigate from one place to another in their home town. In the second, a volunteer is asked to sit on his or her hands and describe how to tie a bow with a piece of ribbon. In the first exercise, students spontaneously gesture; in the second, the volunteer will very much want to gesture and may be unable to complete the task under the restriction given (sitting on hands).

Slicing Channels part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine 3D channel-shaped objects and 2D slices through those objects. The purpose is to get them thinking about how the 3D geometry of a channel is reduced to a random 2D slice through the channel in a typical outcrop, so that they can recognize channel deposits.

Sketching 3D Ripples and Dunes part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students watch a video of the instructor sketching 3D ripples, then practice sketching 3D bedforms, both as seen by the viewer and as annotated 3D block diagrams.