Before we all left for Christmas break students took a final exam in US History. The classes were given 69 terms which spanned the entire first semester’s educational learning and were asked to create a concept web with them. According to inspiration.com, a concept map/web is used as a

learning and teaching technique, to visually illustrate the relationships between concepts and ideas. Often represented in circles or boxes, concepts are linked by words and phrases that explain the connection between the ideas, helping students organize and structure their thoughts to further understand information and discover new relationships. Most concept maps represent a hierarchical structure, with the overall, broad concept first with connected sub-topics, more specific concepts, following.

This visual representation of their learning asked students to apply and analyze the information they learned about US history thus far by categorizing, comparing and contrasting, and organizing the terms into chronological order, connecting terms into relationships, and creating larger concept umbrellas. For example, a student should be able to place the term “Gettysburg” after “Yorktown,” connect the two with the word “warfare,” and perhaps further umbrella all three terms with a fourth, such as “faith,” “hope”, “African-Americans,” or “Native Americans,” depending on their train of thought and rationale.

Here are a few photos of the end result. Next time I’ll provide white butcher paper so that I can read their work easier. Smiling!