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1. Investigating the Relationship Between Spatial Skills and Engineering Design

   Raju, G. (January 2022, ICERI Intenational Conference on Educational Research and Innovation Conference Proceedings)

   Design is a core attribute of engineering practice; in fact, the etymology of the word engineer is traced to the Latin “ingeniare,” which translates as inventor or designer. In order to prepare our students for success in an engineering career, they must be proficient at design and able to think creatively and flexibly about optimal solutions to problems. Additionally, numerous studies have demonstrated the need for well-developed spatial skills for success in engineering, especially in engineering problem solving. Studies also show a link between spatial thinking and technical creativity. The focus of this research is on understanding the relationship between spatial visualization skills and engineering design. As a first phase of testing, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four tests of spatial ability. In a second phase, 102 students returned and were asked to complete three tasks. The first was designing a ping pong ball launcher to hit a target at a specific height from a given distance. They were then asked to list as many factors as possible that should be considered when designing a retaining wall for mitigating flood damage along the Mississippi River in the Midwest in the United States. The third task was to sketch as many ideas as possible in a given timeframe for a rainwater collection system in a remote location. This research paper will present preliminary analysis of the Midwest Flood problem and spatial ability data. The initial insights will be discussed relative to the overall study and how this work could inform undergraduate engineering education, and specifically the provision of design education. 

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2. Exploring the Development of Engineering Design Creativity and the Role of Spatial Skills in this Process

   Reid, Clodagh; Sorby, Sheryl (September 2023, SEFI Conference Proceedings)

   This study aims to investigate the development of creativity in engineering education and how spatial skills relate to creativity of design solutions. Undergraduate students in the first (n=86) and fourth/fifth year (n=48) of their engineering programme were invited to participate. Students completed four spatial tests to precisely measure visualisation skills. In a separate session, students were invited back to solve two engineering design tasks: a ping pong problem where they designed a ping pong ball launcher game to meet specified criteria and a rain catcher problem where they were tasked with developing as many ideas for capturing rainwater as a water source for a remote location as they could. Students were asked not to consider feasibility, cost, etc. and to come up multiple radical solutions to the rainwater capture problem. The creativity of design solutions was assessed using Adaptive Comparative Judgement. Statistical analysis indicated significant relationships between spatial skills, students’ year of study and gender. A statistically significant relationship was also found between students’ creativity scores on both design challenges. No statistical differences were determined in the creativity of first and fourth/fifth year students’ solutions. These findings will be discussed relative to existing research, future work, and potential implications for education practice. 

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3. Spatial Skills and Design Problem Scoping Behaviors in Undergraduate Engineering Students

   https://doi.org/10.52202/073963-0009  

   Raju, Gibin; Sorby, Sheryl (January 2024, Research in Engineering Education Network)

   Context Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education. Purpose While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”. Methods The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks. Outcomes From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups. Conclusion This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems. 

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4. Spatial Skills and Design Problem Scoping Behaviors in Undergraduate Engineering Students

   Raju, Gibin; Sorby, Sheryl (December 2023, Research on Engineering Education Symposium)

   Context Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education. Purpose While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”. Methods The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks. Outcomes From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups. Conclusion This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems. 

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5. The Role of Spatial Skills and Sketching in Engineering Design Problem Solving

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--48133  

   Raju, Gibin; Sorby, Sheryl (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Spatial visualization is the ability to mentally manipulate, visualize, and transform objects in one’s mind. Numerous research studies have reported that spatial ability is strongly associated with predicting success and retention in STEM-related fields such as math, engineering, computer programming, and science. Spatial skills are a critical cognitive ability for many technical fields, particularly engineering. Studies have shown the importance of free-hand sketching in the development of 3-D spatial skills. Similarly, sketching is an integral skill in the engineering design process, especially in the idea-generation phase. However, little work has been performed examining the link between spatial skills and the quality of sketches produced during the engineering design process. There were two phases to data collection for this research. In the first phase, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four spatial tests. In the second phase, 101 students returned to complete three design tasks. This paper examines the performance of the 17 low spatial and 13 high spatial visualizers on one of these tasks where individuals are asked to design ways for remote villagers to catch and use rainwater. Through analysis of the sketches produced by the students, initial insights indicate that there may be an association between the spatial skills of students and the quality of the sketches they produce for their engineering design solutions. These insights will be discussed relative to the potential influence of spatial skills and sketch quality on engineering education, specifically in developing design capability. 

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