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 Fossils part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine images of brachiopods, mollusks, and coquinas. They identify, visualize, and sketch slices through a variety of shelly organisms, then apply what they've learned to identify fossils in several samples of coquina.

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.

Understanding Mineral Cleavage via Gestures part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students use gesture to convey information about mineral cleavage and the relationship between crystal structures and cleavage planes.

Comparing Quartz Polymorphs part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students compare the structures of low-temperature and high-temperature polymorphs of quartz, relating their differences to symmetry and crystal systems.

Gestures for Silicate Structures part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students use gestures to show the structures of single and double chain silicate minerals, paying attention to where silica tetrahedra share oxygen ions and the relative positions of the tetrahedra.

Deformation Mechanisms and Microstructures part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students match microstructures to the deformation mechanisms by which they form; compare pairs of photomicrographs chosen to highlight key differences between some common microstructures; and complete a self-quiz in which they identify microstructures and infer deformation mechanisms from photomicrographs.

Teaching Activities part of Spatial Thinking Workbook
The activities in this collection are designed to help undergraduate geoscience students develop their spatial visualization skills, and particularly their penetrative thinking skills: the ability to visualize ...

Publications and Presentations part of Spatial Thinking Workbook
2019 Dutrow, Barbara L. and Carol J Ormand. (2019). The Complexity of Teaching Mineralogy: 3-D Visualization and Spatial Skills (Invited Presentation): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Phoenix, AZ). ...