Watch my map and map your watch

This article illustrates again how flexible iMindMap software is. Discover new creative mind maps and a unique interactive clock. Use this nice interface for delivering exercises when teaching how to read a clock. For young people and kids, a computer is not a new technology. It’s just a technology because they are born with it and it’s part of their life from the first day. This is not surprising if kids take more pleasure in doing their homework on a computer. My son is not an exception and I will show you in this article what kind of computer based environment I have developed in order to teach him how to read a clock. 

Some people forget (or never learn) how to read an old-fashioned, mechanical analogue clock. My son is currently learning it at school and has homework about it. Although it seems obvious, he has still some difficulties to tackle all the possible cases. I looked at the lesson he received. No much to say about it except that it is not very colourful and creative. When we were doing the exercises together, I also saw the limits of working on paper. I had to use many times the eraser and duplicate (redraw) several times a blank clock.

Learning how to read a clock is a typical case where you can use a tool to stimulate children attention and pleasure. You can find many books or small toys that propose to play with a physical support with needles. It’s more efficient than a sheet of paper and a drawing. You can scene as many cases and you want.

I could not find back such a toy at home and I was not really motivated to build it myself. I was wondering instead if I could not find websites that were providing a similar support in a digital environment. But before I even started to search for it, another idea came to my mind. Why not do it with iMindMap, the mind map software.

Looking back to a previous post I wrote about creating a timeline, I remembered that it was possible to create sharp lines. I was even more convinced when I thought about graphs that my peer Hans Buskes usually draws with iMindMap. Indeed, the short and the long hands are simply two straight branches radiating from the centre. If you add a clock in the background, you get an interactive clock. Children can play with it on the computer indefinitely. 

In order to package both theory and exercises all together, I also created two additional mind maps. The first one is about reading the hours. On most clock faces, there are two hands, and one is longer than the other. The short hand tells you what hour it is. Here is a creative map showing the different positions of the clock hands. 

How to read a clock (hours) - mind map

The second mind map is about minutes and more specially quarters of hour. There are twelve numbers on the clock face, and each number represents five minutes. Beginning at twelve, count five minutes for every time the long hand passes a bigger number. If the long hand is on the 3, it is 3 x 5, or 15 minutes past the hour (one quarter). In the meantime, the short hand is also moving proportionally between two hours (a quarter of the distance between 2 numbers). If the long hand is on the 6, it is 6 x 5, or 30 minutes (half an hour) and the short hand is exactly between the two numbers. When the long hand move on the 9, it’s 45 minutes past the hour (three quarters). If the long hand is on 12, it’s the exact hour and the small hand is exactly showing the number. 

How to read a clock (minutes) - mind map 

If you need to know the time more specifically, some clock faces have four markers between each number. Each marker signifies an additional minute. If there are no markers, look at where between the numbers the long hand is pointing. 

So, on top of the theory, I also prepared some exercises you can do with your kids. It’s basically a list of empty clocks where both short and long hands must be adjusted in order to reflect the time indicated below. In order to proceed, the user grasps one of the branches end point (blue circle) and move it wherever it should be. Once completed, you can review, correct and comments. You can also change the value in the different text boxes in order to create additional exercises. Here is a video of the exercise in action. 

As you can see, it’s another out-of-the-box usage of iMindMap. No need to search the web for specialized websites, because with a bit of creativity, it’s possible to do it with this unique mind map software. I particularly like this approach because it creates again strong associations in my son’s head. Using colours and branches re-enforce the message for a better memorization and recall. He also likes to play with the computer and therefore homework becomes more pleasant. Being able to move the clock hands wherever you want, as much time as needed, is less restrictive than on paper. The human-machine interface has not been specifically designed for that purpose but it works fine. I hope you will enjoy this quite innovative handbook on how to read a clock. Do not hesitate to tell me what you think about it and how it works for you if you decide to test it. 

For those who are interested by the iMindMap file, it is uploaded on the Biggerplate platform and accessible on http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/4QQcVcxR/philippe-packu-how-to-read-a-clock-creative-handbook