Learning Spatially (LENS) is a campus-wide initiative promoting spatial literacy as a foundational component of a liberal arts curriculum. This program is one outcome of Redlands’ institutional dedication to spatial reasoning in programs, research and curriculum. LENS harnesses the integrative power of geography with technologies to help faculty and students visualize knowledge, solve problems, and understand relationships through a spatial lens.

The vast majority of information and data in the world has a geographic component, and spatial factors affect every aspect of our lives. LENS focuses on spatial reasoning, an ability to visualize and interpret location, distance, relationships, movement and change through space and time. Through mapping and spatial analysis, students can visualize information, improve their quantitative reasoning skills, and manipulate data to problem-solve within complex, multi-dimensional situations.

LENS has pioneered courses and projects in conjunction with faculty from music, biology, religion, government, race and ethnic studies, business, environmental studies and archaeology. Each of these focuses on the where within each respective discipline, whether that focus is on landscapes, narrative texts, or social networks, to gain new insights into why, how, and when.