Note-taking during class forces students to follow the professor's logic. If the student is not familiar with a scientific discipline it is difficult to follow the logic as presented. Tools that help students to organize information from the perspective of an existing knowledge base can facilitate learning. Such a tool is the Concept Map. To start building a concept map, consider the following example.
Dogs are familiar to most students.
That depends upon your perspective. To a microbiologist, a dog may be the source of infectious organisms that can contribute to human disease. A Concept Map links the information known about an object with the topics that can provide context for the learner. Go to Indiana University School of Medicine Homepage.