Concept map template

The arrow has to say something

A concept map template is a set of nodes and labeled links. Joseph Novak developed the form for learning: concepts go in the nodes, and a short phrase on each arrow says how they relate. 'Water condenses into clouds' is a proposition you can read aloud. A line with no words is not a concept map yet. Searches for concept map template, sample concept map, and concept map format all point here. In Spanish the same diagram is mapas conceptuales.

A mind map radiates from one center and usually has no labeled cross links. A bubble map only describes. A system map is for feedback in a situation. If your phrases are 'causes' and 'leads to' across a social situation, you may want that page instead.

Sample: a small water cycle

Nodes: sun, surface water, water vapor, clouds, rain. Links: sun heats surface water. Surface water evaporates into water vapor. Water vapor condenses into clouds. Clouds fall as rain. Rain collects as surface water. Five nodes, five propositions. A sample of a concept map at this size can be graded, because each arrow is either accurate or not. A poster with thirty nodes and unlabeled lines cannot.

Steps

1. List the nouns. Concepts only. Save examples for later, or put one example under a node in smaller type.
2. Write a focus question. How does water move through a puddle and a cloud? The question stops the map from absorbing the whole course.
3. Label every arrow with a verb phrase. Read node, phrase, node as a sentence. If it is nonsense, fix the phrase.
4. Add a cross link only when it is a new sentence. Cross links are the point of the method. Decorative crossings are not.