1. Penetrative Thinking: Visualizing Interiors
Carol J. Ormand, SERC, Carleton College
Eric Riggs, Texas A&M University

2. Overview What do we mean when we talk about penetrative thinking?
Example: the Geologic Block Cross-sectioning Test
Key papers & assessment instruments
Kali and Orion, 1996: GeoSAT
Ormand et al., 2014: GBCT
There are LOTS of other papers; see the reference list on the workshop website:
SILC instrument collection:
Implications, strategies, and tools for teaching / training
SILC and the Shipley research lab (esp. work by Atit, Gagnier)
Spatial Thinking Workbook: exercises informed by this work
Steve Reynolds’ semi-transparent blocks
Rowan Cockett’s Visible Geology

3. 5 minutes of experiential learning: the Geologic Block Cross-sectioning Test

4. Key papers and assessment instruments

5. Kali and Orion, 1996
Spatial Abilities of High School Students in the Perception of Geologic Structures
GeoSAT: geologic spatial ability test; open-ended questions
115 HS students, 6 of whom were interviewed
Key findings:
Incorrect answers can be “penetrative” or “non-penetrative”
To solve the GeoSAT problems, one has to be able to visualize the structure and imagine its interior

6. Kali and Orion, 1996

8. Kali and Orion, 1996

9. Kali and Orion, 1996

10. Geologic Block Cross-sectioning Test: Constructed to take advantage of common novice errors (Ormand et al., 2014)
This answer assumes that what you see on the side of the block goes straight in – the layers on the right go straight in from the side of the block, while the top layers go straight down.
This answer assumes that whatever is on the face of the block that is parallel to the slicing plane (the parallel face) goes all the way through the block
Slicing Plane
This answer assumes that whatever lines or shapes are inside the parallelogram that outlines the slicing plane is what’s inside the block

11. The Novice-Expert Spectrum
Differences in skill levels
Differences in types of errors reveal relative sophistication of penetrative thinking
Variations within expert subpopulations
Ormand, Carol J., Thomas F. Shipley, Charles Kiven, J. Steve Davis, Dale Klopfer, and Peter Vrolijk (2014). The Geologic Block Cross-Sectioning Test: Insights Into the Novice-Expert Spectrum in Visual Penetrative Ability: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Vancouver, BC).

12. Novice vs. Expert Errors
Experts are considerably less likely than novices to be deceived by the parallel face foils, and even less likely to be deceived by the parallelogram foils.
Ormand, Carol J., Thomas F. Shipley, Charles Kiven, J. Steve Davis, Dale Klopfer, and Peter Vrolijk (2014). The Geologic Block Cross-Sectioning Test: Insights Into the Novice-Expert Spectrum in Visual Penetrative Ability: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Vancouver, BC).

13. Assessing penetrative thinking in Geology (see handout)
Domain general
Planes of reference
SILC’s Cross-sectioning test for children
Domain specific
GeoSAT (Kali & Orion)
Crystal slicing (Ormand et al.)
Domain specific version of Planes of Reference
Geologic Block Cross-sectioning Test (Ormand et al.)
MC outgrowth of Kali & Orion’s test

14. Implications, Strategies, and Tools for Teaching (“That’s great, but how can I use it in my classroom?”)

15. Improving penetrative thinking skills: predictive sketching & immediate feedback
Laboratory experiments explored the effect of sketching vs. visualizing on students’ ability to visualize object interiors. Sketchers visualize more accurately.
64 undergraduate psychology students (half in each condition)
Pre- and post-test: 7 items from the GBCT
Experimental condition: make predictive sketches, for each of a series of progressive slices through PlayDoh “models” of geologic structures
Control condition: place colored dots where you expect the center of each layer to be, for each of the same series of progressive slices through the same models
Gagnier, Kristin Michod, Kinnari Atit, Carol J. Ormand, and Thomas F. Shipley. Comprehending Diagrams: Sketching to Support Spatial Reasoning. Submitted to Topics in Cognitive Science.

16. Improving penetrative thinking skills: have students show what they are thinking with gestures
Laboratory experiments explored the effect of subjects gesturing vs. verbally describing the structures shown in geologic block diagrams on their ability to visualize interiors. Note: it’s not just that better visualizers gesture more accurately. Students who gesture develop the capacity to visualize more accurately.
Photo by Tim Shipley
Atit, Kinnari, Barbara Dutrow, Carol Ormand, and Thomas F. Shipley (2013). Gesture and Three-Dimensional Visualization: AAPG Hedberg Conference on 3D Structural Geologic Interpretation (Reno, NV).

17. We’ll spend the rest of this hour in exploration
Spatial Thinking Workbook
24 exercises – several each of domain general, Mineralogy, Structure, and Sed/Strat – mostly, but not all, focused on penetrative thinking
Each exercise uses gesture, sketching, and/or analogy
Reynolds' semi-transparent blocks
Structures, in rectangular blocks that can be made semi-transparent
He also has visualizations of topography, which we’ll look at tomorrow – but feel free to look ahead
Visible Geology
Structures + topography
Cross-sections, stereonets, strike and dip, and other fun tools

18. References
Atit, Kinnari, Barbara Dutrow, Carol Ormand, and Thomas F. Shipley (2013). Gesture and Three-Dimensional Visualization: AAPG Hedberg Conference on 3D Structural Geologic Interpretation (Reno, NV).
Gagnier, Kristin Michod, Kinnari Atit, Carol J. Ormand, and Thomas F. Shipley. Comprehending Diagrams: Sketching to Support Spatial Reasoning. Submitted to Topics in Cognitive Science.
Kali, Y. and Orion, N Spatial abilities of high-school students in the perception of geologic structures. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, v. 33, pp
Ormand, Carol J., Cathryn A. Manduca, Thomas F. Shipley, Basil Tikoff, Cara L. Harwood, Kinnari Atit, and Alexander P. Boone (2014). Evaluating Geoscience Students' Spatial Thinking Skills in a Multi-Institutional Classroom Study: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 62, n. 1, pp JGE Paper of the Year.
Ormand, Carol J., Thomas F. Shipley, Charles Kiven, J. Steve Davis, Dale Klopfer, and Peter Vrolijk (2014). The Geologic Block Cross-Sectioning Test: Insights Into the Novice-Expert Spectrum in Visual Penetrative Ability: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Vancouver, BC).
Additional references are listed on the workshop website.