Concept maps encourage students to explore and explain connections and concepts between two or more elements. They help students organise their thoughts, knowledge and understanding of a topic through examining relationships.

Give students the list of keywords relating to the topic. Next, they select words that are connected, they will write these on A3 paper and connect them with a line. Finally, they will annotate the lines to explain the links between the different elements.

To encourage students to challenge themselves you might consider allocating points to different words so that they are motivated to examine more complex relationships.

Below is a selection of keywords for several topics to try in your classroom. They are great to use to check understanding before an assessment or as a revision tool.