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Many people use note cards to help them memorize information when studying for an exam. The reasoning behind using note cards is that it allows for the organizing of information into a format that can be quickly processed and recalled. While it is true that information on note cards is easier to memorize than information in a textbook, there are also more effective means for enhancing memorization. Mind Mapping is one such effective way, because it allows the learner to make use of colors, visual images, words, and symbols to “map” out concepts on paper. This process of mapping out ideas, rather than listing them on note cards, is thought to allow the brain to process information in a manner that more naturally facilitates recall.

How to Organize Information for an Exam Using a Mind Map

Consider, as an example, a learner who is trying to memorize vocabulary words for an anatomy test. When using a Mind Map to organize information for memorization, the overall subject matter to be memorized, such as “Anatomy Vocabulary Words” should be represented by a central image located in the center of the map. Here, the learner may use a graphical image of a textbook to represent the anatomy textbook where the vocabulary words are found. Next, the main categories the vocabulary words fall under should be shown on the “branches” that are attached to the central topic. Thus, the learner might label the “branches” “parts of the heart”, “parts of the brain”, and so on. On these branches, the learner can continue to add colors and images that he or she associates with each label, such as red for the “parts of the heart” branch. The vocabulary words to be memorized should then be attached to the “branches” with “child branches”. Again, the learner should use imagery and color associated with each of the words. Lastly, the actual definitions of each word should be attached to word via the “siblings” of the Mind Map, along with any further colors or images the learner wishes. The attached Mind Map is an example of a diagram that might be used to memorize words for an anatomy exam, organized in the manner described above.

Exam Memorization Using the Mind Map

In the attached Mind Map diagram, the vocabulary words, definitions, and the categories to which they belong, are spread spatially across the page. Moreover, the Mind Map includes not only text, but images, colors, and graphics as well. This diagram can be contrasted with listing the same vocabulary words on standard note cards, where only text is used. The learner, when putting together their own Mind Map, would use the graphics and images that he or she associates with each of the vocabulary words, giving him or her many points of visual reference when memorizing the word. By allowing the author to visualize and learn the vocabulary words in this manner, the Mind Map provides him or her with a more intuitive form a memorization.

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One of the greatest challenges teachers face is preparing an engaging and enriching lesson plan for students. There are many tools teachers can use to make this process easier. However, very few of these methods will contain the advantages found in Mind Mapping. Mind Maps are more intuitively laid out than most traditional lesson plans, because they are presented spatially, rather than linearly, and are “mapped” out across the page. Moreover, because Mind Maps are comprised of colors, visual images, and pictures, instead of just words, they allow the brain to process the information contained in them in a manner more consistent with natural brain functioning. Mind Maps are an effective and creative way to help teachers design lesson plans, and they can make the process of teaching students a lot simpler.

Using Mind Mapping to Construct a Lesson Plan

At minimum, a good lesson plan usually contains six key components. The first component is the key concept of the lesson, namely, what the teacher wants the students to learn about the topic. The key concept should be represented in the center of the Mind Map. The second component of a good lesson plan is the objective, or the skill the teacher intends to teach, and which he or she wants the students to learn as a result of the lesson. For instance, the teacher’s objective may be to teach students the letters of the alphabet, resulting in the students being able to recite the alphabet from memory. The objective should be connected to the key concept via a “branch”. If the teacher has more than one objective, he or she can list them on multiple “branches”. The third component of the lesson plan is the pre-planning materials. The pre-planning materials are any materials that must be prepared in preparation of teaching the lesson. The pre-planning materials component should be attached to the topic(s) via a “child branch”. The fourth component is the student materials, or the materials the children need to successfully complete the lesson. The student materials component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. Though attached to the same topic(s), the pre-planning materials and student materials components should be shown in separate areas of the Mind Map, on either side of the topic(s), with the specific materials to be used flowing out of them via new “child branches” or “twigs”. Fifthly is the procedure component. The procedure component lists the steps a teacher intends to take when teaching the lesson, including sample questions. As with the previous two components, this component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. The “child branch” should extend below the objective, off to the side, and have the steps of the procedure attached to it via “child branches” or “twigs”. The last component of a successful lesson plan is the closure, or the summary of the lesson to the students.¹ On the Mind Map, this component should be attached to the key concept via a “branch” located below the key concept. The attached Mind Map shows an example of a teacher lesson plan “mapped out” in the manner described.

Teaching the Lesson From the Mind Map

Once the Mind Map outlining the lesson plan is completed, the teacher can easily see all of the components for his or her lesson “mapped out”, with colors, visuals, and picture associations included. This mentally and visually stimulating representation of his or her lesson plan makes it simple for him or her to interpret, process and internalize the lesson. Therefore, the teacher will have more thoroughly learned the lesson, and can more naturally impart the lesson to the students.

1. Source: www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/fieldexperiences/pdfs/lessonplanhunter.pdf

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Getting familiar with Integration

You will study integration in the Calculus class in math. It is the study of integrals and integration methods. In mathematics, integration is known as the operation by which an integral is found. When you study Calculus, you are going to study a great deal about integration as well as other areas of Calculus such as Differentiation, Limits, Power Series, Vectors and Polar Coordinates. Some of them are harder than others. If you are having a problem with Calculus, then there are some free calculus help that are available online.

Depending on the math class you are taking, there are a lot of different methods available for you to do your integration. Some problems of integration are more complex than others and you will need better techniques to solve them. If you are learning about integration at school, then the problems you are solving are likely to be much more simple and only need easy methods of integration to solve them.

Techniques of Integration

An easy way to integrate is by using the method called integration by parts. This method lets you to integrate functions that is a product of other functions that are differentiable. If they are not differentiable, then it will be quite hard to perform integration by parts on this function and you will have to come up with an alternative way to solve the problem. There are formulas that you can rely on when you are solving problems by integration by parts.

There are other ways to do integration such as using partial fractions and trigonometric functions. These methods are a lot more difficult than the method of integration by parts so you are less likely to learn about them until you are taking more advance Calculus classes. You may have be familiar with partial fractions early on in your math study but you will not their applications in solving integration problems until advance classes. Trigonometric substitutions are all about using trigonometric functions including sine and cosine to make the integration problem easier to handle.

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I’ve never been an A student in history class but just an average one who would sit down and listen to my professor’s litany and find myself absorbing Colonial Period, Civil War Era, World War II, Cold War and a lot of other significant happenings in the olden times in one sitting. Although it’s pretty interesting to learn all about these timelines, I just find it difficult to grasp and learn all these information pressed into my brain. And so, the rest of my history in history class became one dull 60-minute agony for more or less two years of my life. I didn’t like learning about the holocaust timeline.

That one afternoon changed the whole way I thought about history. Although it was an uneventful day with loads of paper works and readings to accomplish, our professor perhaps came that day with something interesting enough to tickle and challenge our brain cells. “Is there a chance that history can repeats itself”? He then asked, yet expectant that his class would respond in usual silence. As one would expect all we gave was a blank stare back at the prof, but at least we looked interested. But it was only then that I began to question myself, “Does history really repeat itself”? I took a look at the russian revolution timeline and saw a pattern, it was eerily similar to that of the french revolution timeline.

Our teacher gave us something to think about. The social issues that we’ve discussed in the former days of our history class up to the latest topics were weaved together for us to come up with our answers. He took one particular example of presidents of the United States of America. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States had been elected for Congress in the year 1846. Alternatively John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States had his position in the Congress in the year 1946 exactly 100 years ago when Lincoln was elected. These facts do not stop the similarities and likeness of paths these two presidents led. Abraham Lincoln was finally elected President in the year1860 which was again an approximate of 100 years when John F. When Kennedy took power as the new president it was 1960. Apart from these facts, these two presidents encountered the same major crisis in Civil Rights and finally, both were assassinated in their terms of service as president and both on a Friday.

I ask myself if everything that happened was just a coincidence? My prof made me look even more scrupulously at past events and do my own in depth analysis. He then asked the question once more, “Class, do you think history repeats itself”? I had an answer ingrained in my brain that history does not repeat itself. There may have some flukes of nature and happenstance in the lives of the two presidents that were parallel with each other, but I strongly believe that it was just a product of human’s ability to over generalize. This compelling information may have been a great controversy in the past that continues to haunt the present, but I’d like to think that coincidences happen all because of people’s imperfection and their susceptibility to commit the same mistakes over again”.

I knew at the second that what I said was at least partially correct. My teacher had a look that immediately told me that I had a valid point that he might agree with. That experience made me more interested in the subject as I am now able to understand that I’m one of those silent beings taking part in the history of the world, the history of our lives and existence.

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video for class at the school of the art institute of chicago

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Bridgeview School has a successful track record with portfolio preparation. Almost all of our students who applied to art high schools or art colleges got accepted.Bridgeview School has the most successful record of helping students to get into the best art schools in America and Russia. Our alumni have been admitted and given scholarships by SVA, Pratt, Parson’s, FIT, New York Academy of Art, Art Institute of Boston and the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia.

video by ave pluum 2009

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