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Welcome to the Virginia Tech Department of Entomology's Concept Mapping Tool. This experimental system provides a means for students to assess their progress in learning. This help is for the June 2004 version of the system.
Concept maps are a tool for organizing and representing knowledge ([1]). Figure 1 shows a simple concept map. Each node in the graph represents a concept . Loosely, a concept corresponds to a thing or process that we know something about. According to Josesp D. Novak, the developer of the concept map, a concept is defined "as a perceived regularity in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label." Webster's dictionary defines a concept as "an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances." In figure 1, there are five concepts: Domestic Felines, Long hair cats, Short hair cats, Maine Coon Cat, and Siamese.
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Relations, represented by labeled lines in the figure, show the logical connections between concepts. In the example, Domestic Felines can be divided into two categories, Long hair cats and Short hair cats. In a sense, we can use relations to other concepts to define what we know about a new concept.
In our Concept Mapping Tool, there is one designated concept that we call the main concept. We will use a concept map to graphically show what we know about the main concept. In Figure 1, Domestic Felines is the main concept.
In concept maps, the unit of meaning is the proposition. A proposition consists of two concept nodes linked by a relation. In Figure 1, the two nodes Short hair cat and Siamese, linked by the relation example of form a proposition. A proposition is similar to a statement. In this example, the proposition represents the statement, "Siamese is an example of the class short hair cats."