International Experiences in Developing the Spatial Visualization Abilities of Engineering Students

Abstract

Engineerscommunicatewithoneanotherlargelybygraphicalmeans. For this reason, it is very important that the spatial visualization abilities of en- gineeringstudentsbewell-developed. Unfortunately,thereislittleguaranteethat our students come to the university with well-developed spatial abilities. In this paperwewillcomparethespatialvisualizationskill-levelsforenteringengineering students from our universities by means of several tests (Mental Rotations Test, Mental Cutting Test, and Difierential Aptitude Test: Space Relations) and eval- uate our experiences in improving the spatial abilities of both male and female engineering students. Through international comparisons of our experiences in teaching introductory courses, we will describe the teaching methods that seem tobe especially helpful in the developmentofspatialvisualization skills forengi- neeringstudents.