Exploring Concept Maps as Study Tools in a First Year Engineering Biology Course: A Case Study

Concept maps are metacognitive study tools created and used by learners as reference maps describing relationships between concepts and specific domains. The purpose of this study was to investigate any correlation between the quality of concept maps and the mark distributions in a first-year engineering biology course. Major concepts of the course included prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structure and composition, metabolic pathways, cell transport, genetic engineering and growth kinetics. Students were asked to develop concept maps and were allowed to consult their maps in a portion of the final exam. Maps were assigned a qualitative grouping of 1 (incomplete, preliminary map) or 2 (complete map) and were associated with final exam grades to compare the effectiveness of the concept maps. Students who provided complete concept maps had significantly higher 'open book' portion grades (p < 0.0001) and overall final exam grades (p < 0.0001) than students who handed in preliminary maps. The quality of the concept map was positively correlated to student performance in questions requiring conceptual skills as well as in the overall final exam grade.