Improving Spatial Visualization Skills of High School Students Through Sketch Training on a Touchscreen (Evaluation)

ABSTRACT

This paper evaluates an approach for training and improving high school students' Spatial Visualization skills. Using touchscreen devices from home, 45 high school juniors and seniors enrolled in an educational application consisting of nine lessons on drawing orthographic and isometric figures. As part of their remote instruction during the COVID 19 pandemic, engineering students downloaded the application onto their cell phone or tablet and completed a series of auto graded exercises that were assigned in their high school course. The application included gamification features such as stars for rewards and hints to encourage student persistence. The Purdue Spatial Visualization Test Rotations (PSVTR) was administered before the treatment and the mean score for the participant group was 74.0% Regardless of their pretest score, participants were required to complete all nine lessons in the application. After course completion, a post-test of the PSVTR was administered and the mean score for the participant group improved by 6.3%. Results showed that students who were classified in the at risk low performing group and had a pre-test of 70% or lower improved on their post-test score by 15.6%. Sex differences were examined, with female students improving their post-test score on average by 10.7%. Of the nine female participants, five started in the low group and three out of those five ended up moving out of this at-risk group. Additionally, a 15 question evaluation survey was administered to gather student opinions about their user experience. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021