A concept map puts relationships into view. Its boxes name ideas; its connecting phrases explain how those ideas relate. If you can read a connection as a meaningful sentence, you have something you can check against the textbook.
Let's build a small example from a hypothetical ecology chapter. The point is to practice choosing and checking relationships, not to draw an entire ecosystem at once.
Start with a question the map can answer
Use a focus question such as How does energy enter and move through a food web? This is narrower than “Ecology,” so it helps decide which concepts belong in the first version.
Scan the chapter for the terms needed to answer that question. For our simplified example, begin with sunlight, producers, primary consumers, and secondary consumers. Leave other topics in a separate list until you need them.
Novak and Cañas describe this use of a focus question in their account of concept mapping. The question gives a diagram context: the same concept can sit in several different maps depending on what you are trying to explain.
Build the first three links
Put the ideas into short labels. Then connect them with words that make a statement. “Sunlight” and “producers” next to each other are a list; “energy from sunlight is captured by producers” expresses a relationship.
Here is a compact first pass. The arrows show the direction in which to read each connecting phrase.
Keep the scope visible: this is one simplified feeding pathway, not a complete food web. Real food webs have branches and organisms may occupy different feeding relationships. A small diagram is useful when it states what it is leaving out.
Focus question: How does energy enter and move through this feeding pathway?
- Energy from sunlightis captured by →
- Producersare eaten by →
- Primary consumersare eaten by →
- Secondary consumers
Check the claims behind the lines
Before adding more boxes, write each relationship as a sentence and find support for it in the chapter.
| From | Connecting phrase | To | What to check in the source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy from sunlight | is captured by | Producers | How the chapter explains photosynthesis and energy storage. |
| Producers | are eaten by | Primary consumers | Whether the organisms in your chosen example fit this role. |
| Primary consumers | are eaten by | Secondary consumers | Which feeding relationship the example actually shows. |
A label like “is related to” is usually too vague to help. Replace it with a more precise phrase, or leave a question mark if you have not yet established the connection. Do not turn a plausible guess into a confident-looking arrow.
Keep a page or section reference beside relationships you may need to revisit. If the text describes an exception, attach a brief note rather than quietly removing it to make the diagram simpler.
A correction worth making
Suppose you add an arrow from decomposers back to producers and label it “return energy.” Stop and check the claim. The chapter may describe nutrients being recycled, while energy is transferred and eventually dissipated as heat. Those are different relationships.
Split them into separate statements. “Decomposers release mineral nutrients” and “producers take up mineral nutrients” can belong in a second part of the map. The correction matters more than whether the arrows are neatly aligned.
Make the map do some work
Once the relationships are checked, use them as questions:
- Cover the connecting phrase. Can you supply it and explain why it fits?
- Remove one concept. What does the missing box need to contain?
- Choose a new organism. Where would it fit in this particular example?
- Point to a line. What evidence from the chapter supports it?
You can also redraw a small part without looking. Compare your version with the source afterward; a map recalled confidently can still contain an error.
Research on concept and knowledge maps includes both constructing and studying maps in varied settings. It does not imply that a larger diagram is always better. Use the map to clarify the relationships your learning task actually requires.
Grow it when the next chapter earns a place
Add concepts when they answer the focus question or reveal a useful connection. If the map becomes crowded, split it into smaller maps with their own questions. A map of nutrient cycling can connect to the feeding-pathway example without forcing every detail onto one canvas.
Revise old labels when new material changes their meaning. Keep the map as a working explanation, with room for corrections, rather than a finished poster you are reluctant to alter.
In ez-learn, knowledge maps develop alongside reading and connect concepts with their source context. Whether you use that workspace or a sheet of paper, checking and explaining the relationships is the important part of the exercise.
Sources
- Novak, J. D., & Cañas, A. J. The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them.
- Nesbit, J. C., & Adesope, O. O. (2006). Learning with concept and knowledge maps: A meta-analysis.
Put this into practice with ez-learn.
Explore how ideas connect as you read. ez-learn builds evolving knowledge maps from your books, with source context, concept tracking, and guided reviews.
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