In mind games for incoming UW freshmen, students learn that the visual is basic to learning

By JAKE ELLISON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

On a hot, end-of-summer afternoon, 26 University of Washington freshmen sit in a basement computer lab, their faces bathed in electronic blue.

They are thinking visually and reasoning spatially -- solving problems with their hands.


		Meryl Schenker / P-I
	Julie Sun, left, gets decorated by Alexandra Schang, with Travis Calhoun in the background, during their final presentation in Visual Thinking and Spatial Reasoning.

For this cognitive exercise, their attention is on a projector screen at the front of the classroom, where rough squiggles turn into a colorful, 3-D room with chairs around a table, a television on the floor, a small bed and solid walls. Columns support a ceiling, somewhere, unseen. Apparently, for the mind, the sky's the limit.

"It's like a science I never knew existed," said Clint Nelson, a student from Olympia.

The class is taught by Ellen Yi-Luen Do, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, and is an honors offering in the UW's Early Fall Start session for freshmen. It's one of 19 classes taught during the session and is "one of the more innovative ones," said Ken Etzkorn, director of curriculum planning at the university.

The genesis of the class, Do said, was her work creating computer programs and teaching architecture. "What we do in architecture is visual, making things. And by making, doing and reflecting, you actually learn."

She believed students in other disciplines could benefit from a course that focused on learning by creating something physical and visual, and by discovering the way others have solved problems by building models, drawing and reflecting on what one sees.

"She makes us think about the normal stuff we do and look at it differently," said Joe Loeffler, a student from Spokane.

Classmate Stephanie Chou of Tacoma said the course has been good for her mind. "You think more. . .When you go outside and see a building, you say, 'Oh, I've done that in the class.' "

"Visual thinking is involved in daily life and it is interesting to notice that," added Irene Chen, a freshman from Taiwan.

Do's objectives for the class include teaching students to work in teams and to participate in class discussions. The topics and disciplines covered range from art to computer science to architecture.

However, the core of the class is thinking: how people think when they solve problems, from mundane interior design, say, to helping a blind person create animation.

"I try to get them to realize how they can communicate with other people visually," Do said.

Four teams of students created solutions over the weekend for the animation project and presented them in class yesterday.

Two of the teams had detailed diagrams and models for creating an interactive computer program that would use surround-sound and "feel screens" as cues for where objects were located, and how fast and what direction they traveled.

The other two groups presented much more fantastic ideas, with a focus on giving a blind person a sensual perception of the objects in the animation, such as feeling the heat from the sun by wearing an electronic suit or building images in the mind through electric signals.

"We thought a lot more through this than what we talked about," Sariah Khormaeeof Vancouver said after her group's presentation. And with no prompting from Do, the class moved on to more detailed discussions and presentations.

"I'm totally energized by the students," Do said. "They are really into it. They are ready to learn."

P-I reporter Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8346 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com

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