Vision
Purpose
The purpose of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC) is to develop the science of spatial learning and to use this knowledge to transform educational practice, supporting children and adults in acquiring the scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills required for effective participation in an increasingly high-technology society and global economy.
Theoretical Themes
Research on spatial skills and spatial learning has suffered from fragmentation across a variety of isolated subfields. For example, spatial language researchers rarely interact with researchers studying maps and diagrams, and neither community interacts much with researchers investigating individual differences in fundamental spatial skills.
SILC is a National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center
The Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center is a National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center. The NSF Science of Learning Centers (SLC) program supports large-scale, long-term projects to extend the frontiers of knowledge of learning and to create the intellectual, organizational, and physical infrastructure needed for the long-term advancement of learning research. All SLCs share a science of learning research focus and incorporate diverse, multidisciplinary environments through partnerships with academia, industry, education, and other related public and private entities. SLCs seek to understand what learning is and how it is affected at all levels. The SLC enterprise emerges from the intersections of diverse disciplines across the biological, cognitive, computational, mathematical, physical and social sciences, engineering, and education. Each SLC is awarded NSF funding to meet the goals of:
- Advancing the frontiers of all the sciences of learning through integrated research;
- Connecting this research to specific scientific, technological, educational, and workforce challenges; and
- Enabling research communities that can capitalize on new opportunities and discoveries and respond to new challenges.
Other current NSF Science of Learning Centers
- The Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center, University of Washington
- Center for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST), Boston University
- Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC):Studying Robust Learning with Learning Experiments in Real Classrooms, Carnegie-Mellon University
- Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University
- Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC)
Overview