Let's break down how I build my concept maps!
The first ones I use as an example were for Psychiatric Nursing Pharmacology concepts.
The quiz I was studying for had an emphasis on the actions of drugs and the signs and symptoms.
STEP 1: figure out what needs to be on the page
In this case it was Antipsychotic drugs. This then needed to be broken down further into Typical meds and Atypical meds so I divided the paper into 2.
STEP 2: divide up the page- figure out what will go where
In this case I knew I needed 3 things for each subdivision. Under typical and atypical Antipsychotics: action, side effects, examples.
Action is only one short sentence so I didn't need to leave a lot of room for that. Side effects would take up a lot of space so I planned on leaving about half for that. Then examples would need about 1/3 of the space.
STEP 3: write it all out
First chose a color. For whatever reason at the time when I was thinking Antipsychotics I guess I was thinking blue.
Pick a color that correlates to what you think about when you picture that concept.
Make your titles a darker color and always go lighter of the same color (if you can) and if not then use a different shade of whatever color you used (I used some turquoise).
another psych pharm example:
With concept maps of assessments I do the same steps. What needs to be on there?: health history questions and what they mean, how to test the system being assessed, what are the normal and abnormal reactions, and any anatomy and physiology information.
Stick to using one color for one concept. I have all my cranial nerves in yellow. They stand out from the Health Hx because that is in blue and all my A&P info in pink. Makes it easier to digest each section!
^ one that goes more in depth simply about the cranial nerves and what they do- not how to assess them.
It helped me to write normal responses in blue and abnormals in red
^ Here you can see what I use to actually draw the map out. Start with bolder-darker markers and move to thin-light markers.
I start with headings in Sharpie, then move to PaperMate Flairs, and then down to the little thin pens from Amazon.
