A Visual Thinking Skills Training in Support of STEM Education

In the "A me gli occhi" project, a virtual reality game addressing spatial perspective taking is used with a group of primary school children (ages 8-10) with the aim of supporting the development of visual thinking. Several studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between spatial reasoning and success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Visual thinking skills predict a young person's achievement in STEM areas; people with good spatial abilities are more likely to engage in STEM studies and later in STEM related jobs. There are great differences among people in spatial reasoning abilities; nevertheless, they can be trained with long lasting improvements affecting STEM results. An intervention to increase spatial abilities at an early age may have positive effects on the person's future. We have developed a virtual reality game specifically designed to make the player feel as if the virtual world were real, with a special attention to its usability for all, including children with mild intellectual disabilities. The game is available in three different levels of immersion. The first phase of the project focused on the identification of the optimal level of immersion for the task and the definition of the best age group to be addressed. In the second phase, which is ongoing, the children, divided into balanced teams, will participate to a tournament using the same game. Specific moments when the stronger members of the team will teach the weaker ones will be organized. At the end of the experimental period, students' ability in spatial perspective taking will be measured again. Data will be correlated to their abilities with respect to STEM subjects and improvements will be compared to those of students who have not taken part to the training phase of the project.