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
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