Geography: A (mind) map of Belgium

With a mind mapping approach, your lesson is quicker and better assimilated. It however requires to respect a couple of important steps that will increase your chance to succeed. Using a concrete example, this article will explain to you how to use mind mapping in order to efficiently memorize a lesson. You will also learn what and where are Belgium provinces. Whether you created a mind map for preparing a presentation, summarizing a book or memorizing a lesson, the final result is far less important than the mental process that led to it. A mind map is a tool that can quickly become useless without good techniques. With a concrete example, this article will explain to you how to use mind mapping in order to efficiently memorize a lesson.

Define the purpose
Each mind map must be built with a purpose in mind. In the present example, the goal is to memorize how Belgium is divided in provinces, where they are located and what are their respective chief town. It’s a lesson from the 3rd year primary school program. This means that 8 years old students must learn by heart the name and the position of 20 elements on the map. Using a traditional approach, including intense and repetitive efforts, the child will finally remember the lesson. But for how long? There is no guarantee that the whole information captured will be recalled properly when needed. It all depends on the efficiency of the memorization process. With a mind mapping approach, the lesson will be quicker and better assimilated as well as more accurately recalled. In case of a lesson, the central idea usually represents the subject to be learned.

Work with the end in mind
At the very beginning of the process, there is no other choice than analysing the material which is given to you and which explains the lesson. If you want to create a mind map, you must extract the central idea  from the content as well as some topics for the first level of branches (Basic Ordering Ideas). Looking at the example of Belgium provinces, it’s very easy to build a mind map with a branch for each province and a sub-branch for each chief town.

But do you think this mind map is adapted to the initial goal? Does it provide a mean to remember the position of each element? Don’t you think this mind map is a bit boring to be easily memorized? Beyond the content, you must also think about how to draw a remarkable mind map. The first version of the mind map does not include a spatial representation of Belgium and it is also very poor in colour and images. With a bit of creativity, it’s possible to imagine the Belgium map split by provinces, each of them linked with a branch to a central idea. Each province area can also be filled with a colour in order to better identify and remember them among each others. 

If you are interested in discovering more why colour matters, you can visit ColorMatters.com, a nice website about the subject.

Personalize with storytelling
If a mind map has a purpose, it has also a beneficiary (one that benefits from the mental process of mind mapping). It can be the author him/herself or a different person. Here in the example, the ultimate user is the student who must learn the lesson. If you draw the mind map for someone else (like I'm doing), this person must absolutely be involved in the whole process, from the very beginning. Selecting colours, defining keywords and adding images must be the result of personal choices. The memorization process starts with the creation of the map and is reinforced during its completion. Once the mind map is completed with the keywords (provinces and chief towns), it’s important to enrich even more the map with images, colours, rhythm, spatial elements or with any other memory or mnemonics techniques (visit Mnemotechnics website for some of them). One way of selecting images that will fix the information in the brain is to grasp visual assets from stories that the mind map user would tell you or invent about the keywords used. I did the exercise with my son who gave his personal interpretation of the different elements. Here are a couple of sentences that came out of the discussion:

• Luxembourg is the province we cross when we go to France. Arlon is the city where “cat” aunt is living;
• Liege (cork in English) is the material used for wine bottle cap;
• Gand (glove in English) is what your hands need when it’s cold outside;
• Bruges has a famous football team;
• Namur includes the word "mur" (wall in English);
• ...

By analysing the content, the mind mapper may discover other characteristics that are worth to be highlighted. For example, my son noticed that some provinces and chief towns share the same name. Therefore, I added a "2x" logo where it applies. All those visual and emotional associations multiply the chances to remember the whole lesson as it should be. All combined, the final result is this lovely creative and inspiring map of Belgium.

Creative mind map of Belgium

Practice and memorize the mind map
Numerous studies show that physical or emotional stimuli essentially creates the same physiological condition that heightens memory retention. It’s obtained by exciting neuro-chemical activity that affects areas of the brain responsible for encoding and recalling memory (Source: Wikipedia). The emotional content and state (mood) are also very important to consider because it can have a powerful impact on memory (see Fiona McPherson article: The role of emotion in memory). Practically, the best way to memorize the lesson and the related mind map is to decompose the process in 3 main activities, ideally executed at different moments.

• Build the mind map: create, enrich, review, update the mind map. Talk about its content, about its format, about its appearance. It absolutely essential that you enjoy the process and deliver something you like. 
• Re-explain the mind map: without looking to the map, tell a story about what the mind map contains, why it's built that way, what are its specificities, what are the images that have been added and their meaning. According to your preferences, you can re-draw the map, speak out loud or even play with your hands to reproduce virtually the mind map in the air. Check what you missed and adapt the mind map if needed. 
• Test your knowledge: several times before the exam (before sleeping, during your breakfast, in the bus, ...) take a look at your mind map and check whether you still master it, meaning that you can perfectly recall each branch and sub-branch as it should be. You can also ask someone to simulate an exam in order to test your memory and your knowledge in a different context. 

Recall information
According to the levels-of-processing effect theory suggested by Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart, memory recall of stimuli is also a function of the depth of mental processing, which is in turn determined by connections with pre-existing memory, time spent processing the stimulus, cognitive effort and sensory input mode. In other words, the ability to recall correctly and efficiently the lesson totally depends on what happened during the mind mapping process. The mind map itself is not enough.

Many scientists believe that nothing is ever entirely forgotten. With the correct trigger you can remember things you thought to be long forgotten. When recalling the lesson, the first trigger is to remember the purpose and visualize the central image as well as the different branches that radiate from it. The second trigger is to select a specific branch corresponding to the piece of the map you must complete. Think back the direction of the branch, the way it is curved and colorized, which illustrations you added at the end and on top of it. With all those elements back in mind you should be then able to recall the ultimate piece of information you were looking for, the keyword written on the branch.

Learning styles

I'm not an expert in the domain, but I must at least admit that my article does not fully apply to all categories of learners. One of the most popular models of learning styles is Fleming’s VAK/VARK theory. This theory separates modes of learning into four categories: Visual, Auditory, Reading and writing, and Kinesthetic. Even though VAK is one of the most widely known learning styles, many different models have been discussed in the literature. What is important to note here is that the technique I’m teaching mainly focuses on the visual dimension. I’ve already started to work on studies that will demonstrate how mind mapping techniques can also be used for other categories of learners.

Willing to hear from you
Don’t hesitate to test the technique and share your experience here. I’m also interested to read professional’s feedback (teachers, psychologists, ...) and get their recommendations to go further in my studies. I plan to post more articles about successful mind mapping experiences. if you are interested, we can easily stay connected via different channels:

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 Philippe Packu on Facebook

 Philippe Packu on Linkedin

For those who are interested in the iMindMap file, it is uploaded on the Biggerplate platform and accessible on http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/7RmsW9LA/philippe-packu-how-to-memorize-a-lesson-belgium-geography 

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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

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