What’s The Big Idea? CEP 818

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura Date: November 2010 Page 1

Dimensional Thinking & Modeling

Definition and examples

Dimensional thinking reflects the ability to reinterpret objects in formats other than the

ones in which they are currently represented. A common format conversion would be from

two-dimensional representations to three-dimensional representations and vice versa,

although converting to and from other multidimensional representations is also highly possible.

Someone trying to figure out what car could have left a given set of tracks on the mud would be

using dimensional thinking. They would be visualizing a 3-D object (the car) from a 2-D object

(the tracks on the mud).

Someone trying to reconstruct the animal whose shadow is cast on a plane surface would be

using dimensional thinking as well.

This may be considered a 3-D

representation of tire tracks, but they are

also a 2-D representation of a car.

You may guess this is not a real

rabbit because of the rugged

edges…

… but wouldn’t you truly believe

that was the shadow of a real

hand?!

What’s The Big Idea? CEP 818

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura Date: November 2010 Page 2

Modeling involves scaling up or down an object to make obvious the unobvious. An architect

needs to scale down a house or building to a size small enough to see the entire structure of

the house or building in ‘one spot’. Otherwise, they won’t be able to tell if the proportions of

the different rooms are right, or if the room allocation is appropriate.

Click on the picture of the floating house above to see the different effects of zooming in

(scaling up) and zooming out (scaling down).

Although modeling is a crucial initial stage in almost any profession, it cannot replace the life-

sized model. After all, one has to experience the real house to find out how appropriate it is. A

final product that doesn’t live up to its model’s expectations underlies the bitter truth of a

poorly-designed model, which can in turn be used as a lesson for further enhancements.

Impact on my own personal life

When I was little, I used to buy reconstructible tanks and planes. I enjoyed every bit of

assembling the parts, and I definitely gained an important insight into the relative size of

objects around me. As I grew older, I found this a bit time consuming and started modeling in

my mind. Now I always visualize things in their real size and model them so that they would

look in my mind exactly the same way they would if modeled physically. When I was decorating

one wall in my living room, I had to visualize all the masks on the wall. But that wasn’t enough

as I had to see to whole wall ‘in front of me’. For that, I modeled the entire wall in my mind

while still visualizing the masks on it. This ability granted me the household right to decorate

the whole apartment.

This size of the floating house helps see

the appropriateness of the design. Try to

zoom in (enlarge the house to its life-like

size) and see how difficult it is to relate

the different rooms.

What’s The Big Idea? CEP 818

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura Date: November 2010 Page 3

Impact on my ability to teach creatively

I find modeling very useful when teaching writing. For example, I show students a fully-

developed essay before I ask them to write one. It’s pretty much like an architect making a

model of a house before it is built. An overall look at the final product, through a model, is

important if the final product is to replicate the model. The model essay consists of the basic

parts which students will need to change and expand to come up with their own essay.

Most people think of modeling as a physical process. Another form of modeling I constantly

adopt is spatial. Take the curriculum for instance. Before I start the year, I take the entire

curriculum that stretches throughout the year and put it on a single sheet of paper. The year

becomes a line, the semesters become segments, the months become dashes, and the weeks

and days become dots on the time line. This helps me to effectively organize my lessons to

include projects, field trips, and other intra-curricular activities. Without this miniature timeline,

it would be impossible to visualize when it would be appropriate to have activities that

supplement the curriculum.

It may seem simple at first glance, but I

had to model the wall in my mind before

putting up the masks, or else I would

have had hundreds of holes in the wall

before figuring out how to best position

them. The clock was also part of the

model, and that’s why I decided to give

the masks a half-circular shape.

Timeline Model