This assignment is designed to help you understand the research process and to h

This assignment is designed to help you understand the research process and to help you consider possible sources you will use in your Informational Report. Please complete tasks 1 and 2.
1. Based on chs. 30-31.1: “Developing Your Research Process–Gathering Reliable Information” answer the following questions.
What are the six steps for effectively creating a research plan?
What are primary and secondary sources?
What is the difference between popular and scholarly periodicals? What are examples of each?
2. For this part of the assignment, you will begin brainstorming for your Exploratory Essay by designing a concept map.
Concept mapping is a learning strategy that involves visualizing relations between concepts and ideas using graphical representations. It is a form of graphic organizer that consists of various circles or boxes (called nodes) each of which contain a concept and are all interlinked through linking phrases. The role of these linking phrases is to “identify the relationship between adjacent concepts” (McClellan and Broggy, 2009).
Some benefits of Concepts Maps for students:
Provide students with nonlinear visual ways to understand, produce, and represent knowledge.
Help develop higher-order thinking skills including analytical skills.
Facilitate the recall and processing of information.
Help students externalize their knowledge and show their understanding.
Make explicit structural forms of knowledge and relationships between concepts and therefore enhance students’ comprehension.
They attend to different learning styles.
They engage students in meaningful learning activities.
They are effective organizational tools students can use to organize their knowledge.
Visual representations of knowledge is proved to both stimulate and increase brain activity (Marzono, 1998, cited in Birbili, 2006).
Please choose one of the following Concept Mapping Tools to brainstorm ideas, research questions, and possible sources to help you explore the topic of your Personal Narrative in more depth and provide a starting point for your Informational Report. Have at least three questions stemming from your topic, and three possible sources stemming from your questions.
Submit your concept maps to the discussion area by Friday of week four. By Monday of week four, check out some of your peers’ maps. Notice how their ideas are growing outward. You can give your peers additional ideas or points to consider as they develop the ideas in their concept maps. You can also give positive reinforcement to your peers, and you can ask questions.
Attached is an example; please submit your map as an image or pdf attachment.
Exploratory Concept Map (I used Bubbl.us)
Bubbl.us
A good tool for creating visually attractive concept maps. No software download required and maps you create can be saved as an image. It also supports different sharing and collaborative features.
Popplet
Another good tool students can use to create and share concept maps. It offers various features including: recording notes in different formats with text, images and drawings; link notes to each other; export your final work as PDF or JPEG; supports several languages and many more.
MindMup
Lets you ‘create unlimited mind maps for free, and store them in the cloud. Your mind maps are available everywhere, instantly, from any device.’
Creately
Offers tons of pre-designed concept map templates, supports group work, integrated with third party tools including Chrome Store and Google Apps. It also has this handy resource to help you better understand and use concept maps.
Coggle
Another useful tool for creating collaborative concept maps. ‘Coggle is an online tool for creating and sharing mind maps. It works online in your browser: there’s nothing to download or install.’
MindMeister
‘MindMeister is an online mind mapping tool that lets you capture, develop and share ideas visually…MindMeister lets you share your mind maps with as many friends or colleagues as you want and collaborate with them in real-time.’
Lucidchart
You can use Lucidchart to design concept maps, flowcharts and different types of diagrams. It also support collaborative features and works across several devices. It also offers this handy resource to help you learn more about concept maps and how to use them in your class.
Mindomo
Excellent for creating mind maps, concept maps, outlines and many more. Its ‘Presenter’ feature lets students turn their maps into slide-by-slide presentations. Maps can embed videos, audio clips, and links. It also lets students search web images directly from the map and add them with a single click.
Spiderscribe
‘SpiderScribe is an online mind mapping and brainstorming tool. It lets you organize your ideas by connecting notes, files, calendar events, etc. in free-form maps. You can collaborate and share those maps online.’