electric maps - Scienza in Rete

ELECTRIC MAPS
1st CMC Pamplona Sept. 15th 2004
Antonietta Lombardi Scuola elementare Bernalda (MT) Italy
Alfredo Tifi, ITIS “Divini” S. Severino M (MC) Italy (spokesman)
Work supported by DSCHOLA, Turin Italy
Beginnings + context
• Electric maps were conceived “by chance”,
in a fourth grade class of primary school.
• Pupils were practised with concept mapping
(paper and pen),
• pupils were playing with self-made electric
circuits and wired card quizzes…
Circuit game (science activities) 1/2
Circuit game (science activities) 2/2
Wire card quizzes: a bright idea
of children
Gallery of Sample Maps
How children built early Electric Maps
1. drawn all node boxes of a cmap in pencil, on the front cardboard;
2. then drawn little rectangles, for subsequent making of holes, and
wrote down concept labels into the nodes;
3. marked the boxes borders, pressing down with a sharp pen tip, to
make a print on the identical cardboard lying behind;
4. re-drawn node boxes over the back cardboard. Connection lines
were made with large aluminium strips and glued.
5. Pupils cut holes from the front cardboard, superimposed the two
cardboard again, checked up that aluminium was visible behind
every hole. Electric connections were interrupted in “bridge” nodes;
6. closed up the cardboards, sealed borders with glue. The “electric
map” was ready to be completed.
gallery
“Solving” Electric Maps puzzle 1/2
“Solving” Electric Maps Puzzle 2/2
• “Electric Maps” is a powerful tool for reinforce
meaningfulness of relations in two ways: first,
through making “analogical” links for each
related couple of concepts; second, when other
mates search for link phrases and syntaxes.
• In the last works pupils prepared electric maps
leaving out some concept labels, but writing a
link phrase linked to the empty node, so leaving
always one of three elements of every
proposition to be inferred by puzzling mates.
Results (1/2)
Like previous concept mapping, the electric
maps activity allowed us to:
• assess the knowledge of pupils
• highlight their cognitive processes
• check how they master the concepts and the
relative relations of hierarchical inclusion
• testify to the integration of new knowledge
in the pre-existing cognitive structure
Results (2/2)
More than in the usual concept mapping, in the electric maps
activity:
• the pupils asked repeatedly to build the electric maps for all
subject areas
• We got a good level of interaction in the classroom groups,
where children often corrected each other and decided
strategies.
• Children needed to think of pairs’ mind processes, so
gaining higher levels of metacognition for themselves
• This can be seen as a profitable self-evaluation method.
Expectations
• We expect to pass from an educational path that was
born by chance, to a similar but intentional plan.
• We will benefit by CmapTools for design-print cloze
maps (lacking of concept labels and/or connection lines
and phrases)
• We will have to apply a removable paper sheet where
to draw lacking lines and write words, to make cloze
cmaps reusable for other children.
Info to: [email protected]
[email protected]
Conclusions
For each class, the electric maps activity has taken
only four hours in two days, in the last month of the
past school year.
We believe that, given proper pre-requirements, every
school could practice this challenging educational
proposal and innovative route to concept mapping.