Scientist-Educator Collaborative Workshop Workshop Evaluation: Concept Mapping

Held at the New England Center on the University of New Hampshire Campus Friday, March 13, 2009 through Saturday, March 14, 2009

Concept maps are designed to help teachers and their students understand connections and complex relationships. At COSEE, this tool is used to build understanding about climate and oceanography content. For scientists, concept mapping helps them share their understanding of connections in the earth system. For educators, concept maps can be powerful tools for exposing and clarifying topics in the classroom. For more information about concept mapping, visit this page.

The feedback about concept mapping has been very positive. In their post-workshop evaluations, educators agreed that concept mapping helped them "think through the topics they learned during the workshop" (92%) and would be useful to "share ideas and build a bridge for communication with scientists" (83%).

		Watch a video of participant Bryan Field as he discusses concept mapping as a learning process.

Quotes from Workshop Participants

"A very useful tool to help students build thinking and synthesizing skills."

"[Concept mapping is] a great way to explore and test your own understanding of a topic. It allows you to reframe concepts in a way that makes the links between ideas more obvious, and consequently more meaningful."

"I will use the concept maps in new ways and more often because of the workshop."