Boyd L. Earl
Department of Chemistry University of Nevada–Las Vegas Las Vegas
, NV 89154-4003
Mission Statement
Students often see chemistry as a collection of miscellaneous, isolated topics. In general, it is easier to learn a set of related concepts than to learn a set of isolated concepts. Concept maps are based on Novak’s ideas (Novak, Joseph D. Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps™ as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ, 1998; Novak, Joseph D. J. Chem. Educ.1984,61, 607–612), although they need not be as elaborate as those described by Novak. This JCE Online column is devoted to concept maps for use in chemistry courses. Readers are invited to submit maps that they have developed, as well as ideas for using concept maps, for use by other instructors of chemistry. For those interested in creating concept maps, new technology for this purpose has been developed by the University of West Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. This permits easier and better construction of concept maps.
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