Removing Barriers to Success for Women Engineering Students: Improving 3-D Spatial Thinking Skills

The ability to visualize in three dimensions is a cognitive skill that has been shown to be important for success in engineering and other technological fields. For engineering, the ability to mentally rotate 3-D objects is especially important. Unfortunately, of all the cognitive skills, 3-D rotation abilities exhibit robust gender differences, favoring males. The assessment of 3-D spatial skills and associated gender differences has been a topic of educational research for nearly a century; however, a great deal of the previous work has been aimed at merely identifying differences.

For nearly three decades, Sheryl Sorby has been conducting research aimed at identifying practical methods for improving 3-D spatial skills, especially for women engineering students. Her current research focuses on the role that spatial thinking skills play in engineering design and problem-solving. This presentation details the significant findings obtained over the past several years through her research and identifies strategies that appear to be effective in developing 3-D spatial skills and in contributing to student success.