Word walls are designed to serve as visual scaffolds and are a common classroom tool used to support reading and language arts instruction. To support vocabulary development in science and support students who are ELLs, Husty and Jackson (2008) created interactive word walls that resemble semantic maps (Masters, Mori, and Mori 1993). Semantic maps…

Four physiology courses participating in a science education program used concept maps for the first time. At the conclusion of the term, students responded to an end-of-term survey about the activity. Following varied results, we sought to identify factors that students indicated are important for the acceptance of the technique. To encourage…

Although young children are major audiences of science museums, limited evidence exists documenting changes in children's knowledge in these settings due in part to the limited number of valid and reliable assessment tools available for use with this population. The purposes of this study were to develop and validate a concept mapping assessment…

The ability to appreciate the inter-connectedness of complex biological relationships can be difficult for many students. Graphical knowledge in the form of concept maps and flow charts are learning tools which can assist students to recognise the inter-connectivity. This report focuses on a trial which incorporates these two related visual…

Using visual models is common in science and should become more common in classrooms. Our research group has developed and completed studies on the use of a visual modeling tool, the Concept Connector. This modeling tool consists of an online concept mapping Java applet that has automatic scoring functions we refer to as Robograder. The Concept…

This article presents a critical review and analysis of key studies that have been done in science education and other areas on the effects and effectiveness of using diagrams, graphs, photographs, illustrations, and concept maps as "adjunct visual aids" in the learning of scientific-technical content. It also summarizes and reviews those studies…

Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany. Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced…

Emerging from a human constructivist view of learning and a punctuated model of conceptual change, these studies explored differences in the structural complexity and content validity of knowledge about prehistoric life depicted in concept maps by learners ranging in age from approximately 10 to 20 years. Study 1 (cross-age) explored the…

Because concept maps are designed to find out what the learner knows about a subject and are, in effect, maps of cognition, this article synthesizes relevant facts, concepts, and principles from cartography and applies them to concept mapping. The metaphor of the map and its applicability for representing scientific concepts are discussed. (PR)