AN INTERACTIVE SPATIAL ABILITY TRAINING APPROACH FOR STEM EDUCATION

Abstract

While governments around the globe have been promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for years, reports are pointing out the difficulties in learning for students. In response to the urge to improve the STEM education approach raised by society, numerous scholars proposed providing spatial ability training to students could be a possible solution. While spatial ability, especially mental rotation, has been proven by numerous researchers to be essential for success in STEM education, yet the implementation of spatial ability training in STEM education is still absent or insufficient. Our study focuses on proposing a spatial training approach with physical elements. This paper will discuss our attempts at converting the spatial training assignment into a physical educational toy. With our tests conducted in assessing the spatial ability before and after using our educational toy, we may conclude the success and limitation of the toy in improving a person’s spatial ability. Thus, we propose conducting similar research with a larger sample size and try recreating a similar result to prove the success of our toy Turnit-In.