Concept Mapping: You are great at learning from formal instruction Your senior thesis is different – Evolving problem solving – Pulling together many concepts, often from disparate fields – Presentations to peers, professors, mentors, the research community How do you organize your thoughts and express them?

Concept Mapping, steps 1.List the key concepts Write the most important ideas related to each concept on a Postit -- Include relevant terms and details in the list – Who, what, where, why, when, how, how much – Processes – Drivers – Relationships – cause and effect, etc. – Characteristics 1.Number the concepts in order of importance 2.Group closely related concepts 3.Connect the concepts by drawing lines. Add verbs, verb phrases or prepositions to describe how the concepts are related. 4.Don’t just make a map. Make connections and ideas. 5.Review the concept map – Check for accuracy -- fix errors, delete any redundancies, add missing concepts – Rearrange the concepts and relationships as needed – Add emphasis to key concepts and relationships: size, color, pictures

Numbered List of Concepts

ARSENIC IN BANGLADESH GROUNDWATERS Concept Mapping Example:

Concepts Arsenic Health Groundwater Poisoning Tubewells Surface water People Fe oxides Organic carbon Sources Peat lenses Latrines Irrigation Deposition

Concepts-numbered Arsenic-1 Health-2 Groundwater-5 Poisoning-3 Tubewells-6 Surface water-14 People-4 Fe oxides-9 Organic carbon-7 Sources-8 Peat lenses-10 Latrines-11 Irrigation-12 Deposition-13

Concepts-grouped Arsenic-1 Health-2 Poisoning-3 People-4 Groundwater-5 Tubewells-6 Fe oxides-9 Organic carbon-7 Sources-8 Peat lenses-10 Latrines-11 Irrigation-12 Deposition-13 Surface water-14

Arsenic Health Groundwater Tubewells People Fe oxides Organic carbon Peat lenses Latrines Irrigation Sediment deposition Surface waters associated with release tap use degrades food for control use forms Contribute ? Contributes ? Contribute ? pollute microbes control

Free Concept Mapping Tools Online Cmap – Edraw – Concise learning – – – The most popular free mind mapping programs are XMind (desktop), FreeMind (web-based), Mind42 (web-based), WisdoMap (web-based), Wisemapping (web-based), Bubbl.us (web-based),and IHMC CmapTools (concept mapping). They offer robust feature menus, are easy to use, and are compatible with other mapping programs.XMind (desktop)FreeMind (web-based)Mind42 (web-based) WisdoMap (web-based)Wisemapping (web-based) Bubbl.us (web-based)IHMC CmapTools (concept mapping)

1. Try it out for your entire proposal, or just one section, i.e. the Introduction or the Methods. 2. Then discuss it with your neighbor

Value of Collaboratively Developed Conceptual Models “Jointly developing a model not only helped the participants to formulate questions, clarify system boundaries, and identify gaps in existing data, but also revealed the thoughts and assumptions … the process of model building can help scientists, policy makers, and resource managers discuss applied problems and theory among themselves and with those in other areas. – “Conceptual Models as Tools for Communication Across Disciplines” Heemskerk et al “People were willing to listen to everybody else, ‘but what about this issue or that issue, can we put that in?’ It wasn’t a case of, ‘Oh I don’t think so.’ It was a case of where will it fit and then once the subject matter was up there, then pretty much everyone in the group were able to add what effects what.’ – “Evaluating participatory modeling” Jones et al. 2008