Gradually students should distinguish navigation ideas such as left and right along with the concepts of distance and measurement. As they build three-dimensional models and read maps of their own environments, students can discuss which blocks are used to represent various objects like a desk or a file cabinet. They can mark paths on the model, such as from a table to the wastebasket, with masking tape to emphasize the shape of the path. Teachers should help students relate their models to other representations by drawing a map of the same room that includes the path. When students measure the rug with footprints and create a computer-generated rectangle with the same relative dimensions, they are exploring scaling and similarity.
Some computer programs allow students to navigate through mazes or maps.
Teachers should encourage students to move beyond trial and error as a strategy for moving through desired paths to visualizing, describing, and justifying the moves they need to make. Using these programs, students can learn orientation, direction, and measurement concepts. They use these movements intuitively when they solve puzzles, turning the pieces, flipping them over, and experimenting with new arrangements. Students using interactive computer programs with shapes often have to choose a motion to solve a puzzle. These actions are explorations with transformations and are an important part of spatial learning.