How to make a concept map in 6 steps, with examples and tips

Before you write a single concept, decide which question the map should answer and write it at the top of the page. In the example, the focus question is “How do plants make their food?”. In Mindomo, type it into the central topic, the first box on the map: it stays at the top and reminds you what every concept is there to answer.

A question works better than a topic. “Plants” does not tell you what to include and what to leave out, so the map ends up collecting everything you know about plants. “How do plants make their food?” asks you to explain a process, and every concept you add has to help answer it.

Now write down, in no particular order, the concepts you need to answer the question. The plants map needs eight:

• Plants
• Sunlight
• Water
• Leaves
• Photosynthesis
• Chlorophyll
• Glucose
• Oxygen

Novak and Cañas call this list the parking lot: the concepts wait there until you find their place on the map. Write each concept as a noun or a short phrase, one per box. A full study topic usually needs 15 to 25 concepts; the example uses fewer so it stays readable.

In Mindomo, add each concept as a floating topic: choose Floating topic from the Insert menu and click where you want it on the canvas, or CTRL+double-click the canvas. A floating topic is not connected to anything, just like the concepts in the parking lot: you will connect them in step 4.

Arrange the concepts on the page from top to bottom, from the most general and inclusive to the most specific:

• Plants at the top, the concept that includes all the others;
• below it Sunlight, Water and Leaves, what plants need and what they have;
• lower down Photosynthesis and Chlorophyll, the process and the substance that makes it possible;
• at the bottom Glucose and Oxygen, the most specific products.

In Mindomo you arrange them by drag and drop: drag each concept to the spot on the canvas that matches its level. Treat this order as a first draft, not a final decision: the same gesture reorders the map whenever a level looks wrong.

Draw an arrow between every pair of concepts that are directly related. The arrow shows which way the relationship reads, usually from the more general concept to the more specific one. In the example:

• Plants → Sunlight, Plants → Water, Plants → Leaves
• Sunlight → Photosynthesis, Water → Photosynthesis
• Leaves → Chlorophyll
• Photosynthesis → Glucose, Photosynthesis → Oxygen

Notice that Photosynthesis has two incoming arrows, from Sunlight and from Water. In a mind map every idea has exactly one parent; in a concept map a concept can depend on several others, which is what makes it a network rather than a tree. In Mindomo you connect two concepts by dragging one of the box’s handles onto the other concept, or with CTRL+L.

Write a linking word on every arrow to say how the two concepts are related. In Mindomo every connection has a label made for this: click the line, then the grey box that appears, and type the linking word. It works on every line, whether it runs from a concept to the ones below it or across the map.

Then read each pair as a proposition, a short statement that makes sense on its own:

• plants → need → sunlight
• plants → need → water
• plants → have → leaves
• sunlight → powers → photosynthesis
• water → is used in → photosynthesis
• leaves → contain → chlorophyll
• photosynthesis → produces → glucose
• photosynthesis → produces → oxygen

The best linking words are short verbs. Read each proposition aloud: if it does not sound like a true statement, change the label or the arrow. This is the step that really separates a concept map from a plain diagram.

Now look for relationships between concepts in different parts of the map. These are cross-links, and they often show the most interesting ideas. In the example, chlorophyll sits under Leaves while photosynthesis sits under Sunlight and Water; a dashed link joins them: “chlorophyll → captures light for → photosynthesis”.

Then read the map again, starting from the focus question. Does it answer “How do plants make their food?”? Here it does: plants need sunlight and water, their leaves contain the chlorophyll that captures light, and photosynthesis produces glucose, the plant’s food, and oxygen. If part of the answer is missing, add a concept; if a concept does not help answer the question, remove it. Good concept maps almost always go through several revisions.

When the map is ready, you can share it to review it with others, or export it as a PDF, an image or other formats.

A concept map is a snapshot of what you understand right now, and understanding grows as you study. When a concept turns out to be more general than you thought, move it up a level; if it belongs in another part of the map, drag it there. In Mindomo the arrows and linking words stay attached to the concept while you move it.

The best linking words are verbs of one to three words: “contain”, “produces”, “is used in”. Avoid vague labels such as “relates to” or “is connected to”, which do not say what the relationship is, and whole sentences, which weigh the map down. If a relationship needs a long explanation, put it in a note on the concept.

Colors and shapes make a map faster to read, as long as they mean something:

• use one color per kind of concept, for example one for processes such as photosynthesis and one for substances such as water and glucose;
• or use one shade per level, darker at the top and lighter at the bottom, so the hierarchy shows at a glance;
• give a different shape to concepts of another category, such as things from outside the plant;
• keep cross-links in a different color or line style, like the dashed orange line in the example.

A finished map is also a study tool. Hide some concepts, or some linking words, and try to rebuild them from memory: which concepts are missing, and what links them to the others? Your mistakes show exactly what you have not understood yet. To go further, read the research on learning with maps.

Many focus questions share a shape: a process (“How does…?”), a classification (“What kinds of…?”), a cause and effect (“Why…?”). When a map works well for one of these shapes, turn it into a template: next time you will start with the levels, arrows and empty labels already in place.

Links between concepts often come to mind away from your desk. With the Mindomo app for iOS or Android you add a concept or an arrow wherever you are, and find the change waiting on your computer for the next review.

The surest way to check a concept map is to explain it to someone else: start from the focus question and read the propositions one after another, from top to bottom. Wherever you get stuck, a concept or a linking word is missing. For a class presentation or an oral exam, Mindomo builds the slides from the map, one level at a time.