COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELLING TECHNIQUES ON SPATIAL ABILITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG BUILDING DRAWING STUDENTS’ IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Spatial Ability, Mental Cutting Ability, Spatial Visualization, Digital Modelling, Building Drawing, Academic Performance.Abstract
This study investigated the effects of three-dimensional physical and digital modeling on spatial ability among Vocational I Students’ offering building drawing in Technical Colleges in Edo State, Nigeria using a non-equivalent quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design. The study was guided by three research questions; three hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance. The population consisted of all the 216 (156 males and 60 females). Purposive sampling was utilized to select three technical colleges consisting of 125 students (90 males and 35). The students were randomly assigned to conventional teaching method, 3D physical modelling and 3D digital modelling treatments respectively. Instruments used for data collection were: 3D graphics implemented were in terms of the current curriculum of the subject of Building drawing; Spatial Ability Test (SAT) was adopted from a series of standardized test for Spatial Ability (SA) administered to assess students’ level of spatial ability before and after treatment. The tests included and limited to Mental Cutting Test (MCT), Spatial Relations Test (SRT) and Purdue Spatial Rotation (PSR). For the experimental groups, students had a total of 15 hours training in three weeks on 3D digital modeling in the design studio with Google SketchUp free version and 12 hours training on the physical modelling with cardboard, straw board and adhesive agent to produce 3D paper or physical modeling. The students were not yet familiar with CAD software nor material modeling before the exercise. The results of the post-test indicated that there is a significant difference between the spatial ability levels acquired by the treatment groups taught with 3D physical modelling and 3D digital modelling respectively, compared to the control group using only the conventional method of pen-on-paper 3D model drawing. However, regardless of the models used, the improvement is quite similar over the treatment groups without any significant difference. The study recommended among others that teachers should incorporate both physical and digital modelling activities more consistently into classroom practice.
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