Peer-reviewed article
A STEM-based learning trajectory for developing spatial reasoning in 8-year-old children: online and face-to-face implementations
Ana Isabel Sacristán, Andrea Ortiz-Rocha, Ivonne Sandoval ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The paper presents a set of classroom tasks for eight-year-olds that builds spatial reasoning through the topic of earthquakes. The children's final product is an evacuation route. The tasks combine hands-on materials, such as measuring tools and recycled items, with digital tools such as Google Maps, Google Earth and LightBot. The tasks were tried with children from a disadvantaged context in Mexico, first online during the Covid-19 pandemic and then face-to-face the following year. The authors describe the design and discuss what they learned from recordings, photos and student work.
Key points
- The learning trajectory is built around earthquakes and ends with students designing an evacuation route.
- Tasks combine concrete resources (measuring tools, recycled materials) with digital ones (Google Maps, Google Earth, LightBot).
- Students construct and test instruments not usually in the primary curriculum, such as a seismograph.
- The trajectory was implemented in two phases, online and face-to-face, with children from a disadvantaged context in Mexico.
- The authors argue that combining digital and concrete resources and several STEM disciplines builds a classroom culture of inquiry and gives children agency over their own reasoning.
Limitations
The abstract gives no measured outcomes, no comparison group and no sample size, so it cannot show whether children's spatial reasoning improved. The authors say the online modality had accessibility limitations, and the findings come from a small design-based study in one context.
Abstract
We present a STEM-based learning trajectory, centered on the phenomenon of earthquakes, that aims to develop spatial reasoning in eight-year-old children. The trajectory has as an end product the design of an evacuation route. Based on a framework integrating spatial reasoning actions, reference frames, and the differentiation of micro-, meso- and macrospaces, the trajectory tasks combine concrete resources (measuring tools, recycled materials) with digital ones (e.g., Google Maps, Google Earth, LightBot) so that students can analyze representations, measure distances, as well as construct and test instruments and artifacts (e.g., a seismograph) not usually included in the primary school curriculum. It is designed to help students articulate and move between different spatial sizes and their representations and use adequate measuring instruments for each. Within a design-based research (DBR) study, the trajectory was implemented with groups of children from a disadvantaged context in Mexico, in two phases and in different modalities: online, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and face-to-face the following year. We describe the pedagogical framework, learning environment, and trajectory design, and report results derived from the analysis of the implementation data –video and audio recordings, photos and student productions. We discuss the practical implications of combining digital and concrete resources, mathematics and the other STEM disciplines; we argue that this can be considered an extended sense of blended learning that helps build a classroom culture of inquiry and gives children agency over their own reasoning. We end by acknowledging the constraints of our work and discuss the accessibility limitations of the online modality in our implementation.