Introduction to Concept Mapping Using Inspiration

Grade 5

This learning experience will introduce you to use of Inspiration software for creating concept maps. Using information from the Watershed Radio news article called, “Underwater Grasses,” you will create a concept map that communicates the importance of underwater grasses to estuary ecology. –Kathryn Verzoni, January 2002, Mohonasen Central Schools, Schenectady, NY

1. A concept is a person, place, thing, idea, or event. Some important concepts from the underwater grasses article are in boldface.

2. On the Start menu, find Inspiration 5 K-12.
3. When Inspiration appears, click on Close in the Did You Know box.
4. From the top menu bar, click on Utilities. In the drop down box, deselect Grid Lines.
5. Click on Utilities again. In the drop down box, deselect Grid Snap.

6. In the box labeled main idea, type Underwater Grasses.

7. Drag the box up to the middle top of the page. Like this…

8. At the bottom of the screen you will see a text box tool.

Click on it.

Then make a text box at the upper right of the page.

Type your name in the text box.

9. At the left you will see a symbol palette.

Click on the page where you would like another concept box to appear.

Then click on the rectangle box maker.

Make concept boxes for each of the concepts in boldface in the Underwater Grasses paragraph.

10. The next step is linking. Whenever you need to link…

1. Click on the Link tool icon.

2. Click on the concept that you want to link from. Then click on the concept that you want to link to.

3. The link will appear. In the link box, type the relationship between the two concepts.

Keep arranging and linking concepts until all concepts are connected. The linker words are called the “relationships between concepts.” When two concepts are related by linker words the whole thing is called a proposition. For example, “Underwater grasses provide oxygen” is called a proposition.

From Watershed Radio, January 4, 2002

http://www.watershedradio.org/january2002/010402under.htm

Ó Sierra Club and the Smithsonian Institution

Underwater Grasses

If we could go back in time to the turn of the century, we would see an emerald necklace of underwater grasses lining the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Recent aerial photos show that many of the gems are now missing. To help the Bay, we must work hard to restore these grasses known as submerged aquatic vegetation, called SAVs, which produce oxygen, filter sediment and absorb excessive nutrients. They are a critical habitat for Bay wildlife. Numerous federal and state agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recruit volunteers to help grow SAVs and replant them in the spring.

From Watershed Radio, January 4, 2002

http://www.watershedradio.org/january2002/010402under.htm

Ó Sierra Club and the Smithsonian Institution

Underwater Grasses

If we could go back in time to the turn of the century, we would see an emerald necklace of underwater grasses lining the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Recent aerial photos show that many of the gems are now missing. To help the Bay, we must work hard to restore these grasses known as submerged aquatic vegetation, called SAVs, which produce oxygen, filter sediment and absorb excessive nutrients. They are a critical habitat for Bay wildlife. Numerous federal and state agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recruit volunteers to help grow SAVs and replant them in the spring.