Concept map
Small groups of students make a visual/graphical representation where ideas are linked around a central concept.
- Pairs
- Small groups (3-10)
- <5 minutes
- 5-10 minutes
- 10-30 minutes
- Activating prior knowledge
- Creative Thinking
- Discussion
- Apply
- Analyse
When to use it?
- When there is a broad topic with a lot of concepts that can be linked together. Connecting concepts can help students to understand and remember the relationships between them.
- When you want students to organise complex material.
Activity instructions
Preparation
- Come up with the focused questions or problems that will guide the students when they will be creating a concept map.
Activity steps
- Make groups
Make groups of 3-4 students. - Provide a question
Provide each group with a different question or problem. - Create
Ask students to make a concept map in relation to the given question or problem.
Tips for implementation & variation
- Online teaching: Students can be put into breakout rooms and use the built-in whiteboard of the video lecture tool to create their concept map.
- Changing maps between groups can be a good idea to extend students’ thinking and look for relations between different problems.
- It is also possible to give the same problem or question to different groups. This way they will be able to compare their maps and see how differently they have approached them.
Supporting tools