Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 February 27

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February 27

Looking for a good example of a concept map

I'm looking for a good example of a concept map capturing the relationship among the concepts and facts in some subject. I want to explain to a child the importance of understanding and knowledge organization in the learning. Ideally the topic is something a middle schooler hasn't learned in school yet but is small enough to be explained in an hour or so. My plan is to present same topic twice, the first time covering the concepts and facts but without providing a useful way of organizing them, then explaining the same material again using a concept map to show/emphasize how things relate. I hope to get across the point that a useful way to organize knowledge can make the same information much easier to understand and remember, and effective learning is more than remembering definitions and facts. Any suggestions for a good subject for the purpose? Thanks. --173.49.18.42 (talk) 04:08, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

The relationships of the various species, families, etc. (which evolved from which, for example) always required a diagram for me to understand. Not sure if this type of evolutionary tree counts as a concept map though. StuRat (talk) 04:32, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I could never get a grip of the family tales my mother told me, until I drew a family tree. There turned out to be more than a thousand names in that tree in her head. Fortunately, she had birth certificates, books and things of about a third of the ones not still alive. Some seem to be able to hold a lot of old stuff in their head, but not me. I needed that tree.It is not exactly a concept map, I know, but close. The point of this is probably that whatever you settle for, it should be something that your audience really wants to learn about, but too much info to learn without some graphics. Star Lord - 星王 (talk) 08:28, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

This reminds me of tutoring kids on how to improve their study skills in general, and especially in visual ways. So I searched google-images for "concept maps" and came up with a good start: [1] which has some simple examples (e.g Trees - Oxygen - Wood, etc) and lots of reading about using concept maps as educational tools. El duderino ^(abides) 08:56, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Brainstorming would work for the beginning of your lesson. Brainstorm a central idea, such as Sports, then get the child to name a sport (football), then ask what do they use (ball)? What do they play it on (field)? Then another sport (cricket, cricket bat/ball, field), then another (baseball, baseball bat/ball, field), and so on. Then in your next lesson, arrange them all and draw lines between those that are the same (ball, ball, ball, for example) - better still write them in different colours (so 'ball' would be red, 'field' would be green, etc. - kids love colours). Then, get the child to count all the connections between each one, and name the sports with the most connections. To make it even more fun, you could include Quidditch or other fictional sports, or make some sports up together (Bananaball, banana/ball, fiery volcano) and try to fit them into the concept map. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 10:01, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Ah, yes, brainstorming. That led to a hugely uncomfortable moment back in the early 80's when my classmate, asked what one could do with a tire, said "hustle off little children". μηδείς (talk) 01:15, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions so far. If there are more ideas, please continue to post them. Thanks. --173.49.18.42 (talk) 13:44, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

A question about references

In https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry a conversation from an aired conversation in the entertaining documentary BBC television series "Out there" by Stephen Fry is refenced simly by stating "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 2013-05-22". Is this a good reference? Perhaps references are not required in wikiquote? If the reference is not good, will this question that I am posing here in helpdesk be deleted? Should it be deleted in the wikiquote section? Would it be possible to reference the video itself instead, since it is available on youtube? Star Lord - 星王 (talk) 11:35, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes its an 'ok' reference as it tells you where it was from and gives anyone who want's to check it enough information to find the source, it would help if it had the network it was broadcast on and perhaps an identifier to the episode/series number - but apart from that, perfectly acceptable. You can even use wikiquote:Template:Cite_video. No it would not be advisable to link to the video as no doubt the one on Youtube would be a copyright infringement and we can't link to illegal works. Nanonic (talk) 19:16, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you. Seeing as it is an ok reference, I will use it in another place too. Star Lord - 星王 (talk) 20:23, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

Type of paper

Is there a particular name for the paper that's used for puzzle magazines (sudoku/crosswords/wordsearches etc., like these ones)? It's quite fibrous and isn't white; it's got quite a cheap/recycled feel. I'm at a loss of what to Google for or where to begin, so if anyone could help (especially if they know where I could buy some at A4 or A3 size) that'd be great. Thanks. matt (talk) 11:51, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I think it's called Bleedproof paper. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:57, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I think it is newsprint. --Jayron32 14:06, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I think bleedproof is a bit thicker than what I'm thinking of. Newsprint, however, seems too thin—but it's certainly that sort of stuff. matt (talk) 14:47, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Pulp paper ,hence pulp magazines Hotclaws (talk) 17:52, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Possibly the same kind of paper they used to use (and maybe still do) in kindergarten or first grade to practice printing and writing. Thick enough to withstand some erasings. Possibly old-style comic books as well. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:48, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

That's bleedproof, BB. I think the OP's paper is the same as that used in manga. It might be easier to look into manga paper than into puzzle magazine paper when googling, since manga is talked about a lot more. That's how I got the word 'bleedproof' (which I had never heard of before). KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 21:50, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I think Manga paper is slightly thicker, but it's the same texture. Mingmingla (talk) 23:52, 27 February 2014 (UTC)