Spatial Visualization Skills: Impact on Confidence in an Engineering Curriculum

Spatial visualization skills have been found to be important in STEM careers, and research has been conducted at a few universities to investigate the impacts of spatial training with STEM students. At Michigan Technological University, all engineering freshmen are given the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) during orientation. In Fall 2007 and Fall 2008, these students were also given a survey to assess their confidence in their choice of engineering major and in their preparation for and ability in certain aspects related to an engineering curriculum. This paper examines the impact of spatial visualization skills as measured by the PSVT: R on the students' confidence levels at the beginning and at the end of their first year in an engineering curriculum. Spatial skills of students selecting different majors are compared to determine if spatial skills may be a factor in a person's choice of major (e.g., do most mechanical engineering majors have highly developed spatial visualization skills while more computer engineering majors have less developed spatial visualization skills?). These analyses are also performed by gender.