Exploring spatial relationships : a strategy for guiding technological problem solving

The growing realization of the benefits to individual students and to state economies, of providing science learners with opportunities to expand their knowledge, skills and experience of knowledge-based technological design has led to seeking instructional strategies to facilitate the transition from traditional school settings to project based learning environments. This paper refers to engaging high school physics and computer-science majors in challenging design projects which seek to activate and implement the often inert formal content knowledge within the context of designing and constructing systems dealing with real world engineering challenges in robotics and electro-optics. In this paper we suggest that visualization of the problem space and guided exploration of its spatial relationships can promote the elicitation of relevant formal knowledge and lead to creative solution design. These methods are described in the context of designing and programming robot navigation and in the context of developing remote distance sensors.