Concept Mapping is a visual illustration of concepts and ideas as a complex structure composed of boxes or circles which are connected to each other with a linking word(s) or phrases that are connected to a central concept. The structure mostly has a hierarchical relationship. Boxes and circles depict topics and sub-topics which are connected with descriptive expressions so that one can define their mutual relationships.

Through the years concept map creator tool has gained immense popularity as it is a highly applicable technique allowing people to state what they know and have learned for a specific discipline. People can portray their thoughts and ideas, analyze what they know and don’t know and structure their knowledge in a hierarchical way.

The American professor and science researcher Joseph D. Novak developed the technique of Concept Mapping in the 70s which is based on an organizing and structuring theory by American psychologist David Paul Ausubel. Ausubel tried to find a way to develop a method to present information before Novak came up with the concept mapping method.

At the start, Novak introduced the concept mapping technique as a way to show changes in a child’s interpretation of scientific concepts. Concept mapping was taught to young students in primary and elementary school so that they could effectively express their answers to elementary questions on different subjects like ‘What is air?’, ‘What is Earth?’, ‘How does it rain?’, etc.

Ausubel had declared in his theory that the most important factor influencing one’s learning is ‘what the learner already knows’. Novak worked on the basis of this idea and expanded the theory to conclude that the meaningful learning is where the new concepts get assimilated with propositions in existing cognitive structures. Thus coming up with concept mapping that improves and facilitates the process of teaching and learning science for teachers and students respectively.