Title page for ETD etd-07032012-131830

Type of Document

Master's Thesis

Author

Liner, Michael Shawn

URN

etd-07032012-131830

Title

Spatial Ability and Achievement in High School Physics

Degree

Master of Natural Sciences (M.N.S.)

Department

Natural Sciences (Interdepartmental Program)

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Slezak, Cyrill	Committee Chair
Butler, Les	Committee Member
Moreno, Juana	Committee Member

Keywords

physics
education
high school

Date of Defense

2012-06-29

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between a student’s spatial abilities and their success in high school physics. First, I investigate whether the success of students in high school physics class correlates with their spatial abilities before taking the class. Second, I investigate whether taking high school physics has an effect on student’s spatial abilities. No direct intervention was given to any of the students.
Three instruments were administered to determine the student’s spatial abilities, The Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation Test (Hegarty & Waller, 2004), The Mental Rotation Test (Peters & Laeng, 1995), and The Paper Folding Test (Ekstrom, French, Harmon, & Derman, 1976). Students were also evaluated on their pre-conceived notions of force and motion using the Force Concept Inventory (Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992). These four instruments as well as the student’s course test averages were evaluated to determine correlation. Results show that there may have been an improvement in spatial abilities as measured by the Mental Rotation Test in the AP course (n=17,p<0.05). However, I did not find any correlation to pre-existing spatial abilities and performance in the course

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