Preliminaries to Concept Mapping
Today: May 19, 2009Due: May 28, 2009
Background Information
The following from:
Strategies for critical thinking in learning
Critical thinking studies a subject or problem with open-mindedness.
The process begins with a statement of what is to be studied,
proceeds to unrestricted discovery and consideration of possibilities,
and concludes with a pattern for understanding that is based on evidence.
Motives, bias, and prejudice of both the learner as well as the experts are then compared and form the foundation of judgment.
Enter with an open mind:
- Define your destination, what you want to learn
Clarify or verify with your teacher or an "expert" your subject - Topics can be simple phrases:
“Human activities are exacerbating global warming.” or
“Humans activities are not (cannot) exacerbate global warming.”
- Think about what you already know about the subject
What do you already know that will help you in this study?
What are your prejudices? - What resources are available to you, and what is your timeline?
- Gather information
Keep an open mind so as not to close your options
and for chance opportunities - Ask questions
What are the prejudices of the authors of the information? - Organize what you have collected into patterns to understand it
Look for connections - Ask questions (again!)
- Think in terms of how you would demonstrate your learning for your topic
Yes! how would you create a test on what you have learned?
From simple to more complex (1-6) operations:
1. / List, label, identify / Demonstrate knowledge
2. / Define, explain, summarize in your own words / Comprehend/understand
3. / Solve, apply to a new situation / Use your learning; apply it
4. / Compare and contrast, differentiate between items / Analyze
5. / Create, combine, invent / Synthesize
6. / Assess, recommend, value / Evaluate and explain why
Think in terms of making your learning an adventure in exploration!
Summary of critical thinking:
- Determine the facts of a new situation or subject without prejudice
- Place these facts and information in a pattern so that you can understand them
- Accept or reject the source values and conclusions based upon your experience, judgment, and beliefs
Reading Assignment:
Concept Mapping
Homework Assignment:
Organizing Thoughts
Beginning Your Concept Map –brainstorm and list all information from this term
- To begin to develop a concept map, you first need to just list everything we covered this term. Go through your reading assignments, labs, and lectures (the PowerPoint lectures are online) to generate this list. I use index cards: color index cards for key concepts and plain for ideas under those concepts. I can lay them out and move them around to find what makes the most sense to me. You can use a database program or spreadsheet, and with simple commands for the database or coding columns for spreadsheets, you can organize them easily.
- Be sure to identify the data that supports human activity is
- Causing, exacerbating, or influencing global climate change
- Inconclusive, or not enough information
- Cannot possibly impact the global climate
- Complete the brainstorming and organization phases and draft and develop a table of information in a way that makes sense to you. For example (and this is only an example), you could have causes that are:
- Macroscopic (anything larger than what is visible to the naked eye)
- Microscopic (anything that requires magnification to see it)
Next begin dividing everything into these two categories. The further subdivide them. Some of your items will go into more than one category. That is just fine, and the concept map deals with that in a way that can be very illuminating. Other ideas are: Gas/Liquid/Solid, Pro/Con, Natural/Human Made, Cosmic/Planetary. There are many more. What makes sense to you?
Turn in your assignment next Thursday, May 28th. I will grade and return it to you by Tuesday, June 2nd. Your final concept map is due at the final, and you may use it for your final. And yes, I really expect everything to be on this table, with the beginning ideas for your organization. The more time you spend on this now, the less time you will need to study for the final, and spend your time working on the final Concept Map.