Concept Map

For this concept map I decided to tackle my understanding and interpretation of the universe. Sounds daunting right? Well for me, interpreting and understanding the universe is something of an obsession. I was an observant young boy and have been taking mental note of human behavior since then. My understanding of man early on only allowed me to ask deeper questions. Such as; scientists argue that nature always seeks to maintain balance. In an ecosystem that has been developed for billions of years, the maintenance of balance is the objective. Thus if scientists argue that humans are just an evolutionary byproduct and thus just a natural concoction, would it make sense that we humans, as a natural conception, would disturb this balance by polluting, overusing natural resources, and getting rid of whole ecosystems. Nature would never create an animal that would be detrimental to its existence right? Moreover, scientists claim that man has had a hand in destroying and tipping this balance, an example of this claim is global warming. Hence, isn't it a paradox to believe that nature is self preserving, yet also claim that a naturally conceived species such as Man, can be detrimental to the natural processes that created it? Sorry to get sooo off track, but it makes you wonder lol. Thus with this concept map, I jotted down some key words that came to mind when I pondered about how the Universe works.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, unfortunately I left my camera back home in Providence and I had to take the picture with my cheap camera phone.

Mind Maps

Background: I decided to take the same route that Professor O’Connell undertook in her example and decided to base my mind maps around a business. The central theme is Zenuj, which is the name of my friend’s up and coming jewelry line. My intentions while drawing out the first map were to get on paper what Zenuj entails and its potential growth. My second map elaborated more so on the future of Zenuj and the processes necessary to make it a success.

Map 1: So I started out by writing Zenuj in the middle of the piece of paper and bordered it with a rectangle. From there I expanded by jotting down words that came to mind when I thought of Zenuj. From these categories I expanded onto smaller categories. Thus what I ended up with was a broad definition of what Zenuj represents. I waited half an hour and went back to draw in little caricatures to emphasize what I thought was important. (Aha!) After finishing, I realized that my choice of crayons was not the best choice to write out words in since it proved a little difficult to read.

Map 2: (Aha!) The next day, I went back to look at my map and realized that I had dedicated a good portion of my map to the future of Zenuj. Thus, I decided to make it the main theme of my second map and my central theme became “Zenuj, the potential”. I bordered this with a cloudy sphere, since in essence; the future of Zenuj is still a dream. Behind the central theme I drew a sun barely peeking out. This to me translates the notion that although Zenuj’s future is still a dream, we have the sun behind us and the future is bright. Above the sun I drew rain clouds being blown away by the wind. Carrying out this metaphor the branches of the map were the suns fiery rays which focused on the future of Zenuj and what it would take be successful.

Conclusion: After finishing this exercise I realized that a successful future for Zenuj is definitely feasible. (Aha!) The maps made it easier to understand the simultaneous juggling of different factors related to achieving this success.