Psychological studies have discovered that people learn in different ways. The common eight that Paterson studied were active and reflective, sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, and sequential and global. Active learners learn by doing something and participating, while a reflective learning type thinks about the ideas. Sensing involves learning concrete ideas, while intuitive learning is based on conceptual information. Visual learners need pictures, graphs, demonstrations or anything they can see to learn.
Verbal learners learn through oral and written explanations.
Finally, sequential learning is a logical flow of information and how it connects, while global learning is the big picture. Students usually have many of these learning types. Using these criteria, Paterson evaluated over 100 environmental engineering undergraduates at Michigan Tech and found that they were primarily active, sensing, visual and sequential learners. Unfortunately, traditional educational tools, textbooks and lectures, promote only the verbal learning style. Paterson hopes to integrate all learning types into a new course for sophomores in Michigan Tech's Department of Environmental Engineering called Environmental Monitoring and Measurement Analysis.