Mind Mapping Competition Results

What good mind mappers you are! We’ve had lots of great quality maps on a wide range of subjects. Judging the entries was a challenge and took quite a while but we did it.

Congratulations to our winners who are:

Chloe Brant 9U (1st  Place & a £50 voucher); Lucy Foster 8P (2nd Place & a £25 voucher); Olivia Vanstone 7K (3rd Place and a £20 voucher); Anna Coldwell 7G and Kate Marsella 8M (joint 4th Place and a £10  voucher each ); Risa Ishikawa 8B and Dani Boughey 10S (joint 5th Place and a £5 voucher each).

Please come along to the Library as soon as possible with details of which shop you’d like your voucher from. We’d like you to have your prize before the end of term!

We’ll be issuing certificates to all our finalists – if we don’t get them out to you before the end of term, you’ll have them ready for you to collect at the beginning of January.

Mrs Mills and Ms Garratt

Can Staff Mind Map?

Mr Gregson asked this and the answer is that of course they can!  The Mind Mapping Competition is open to all students and staff at Ashlawn. It seems only fair though to have a later closing date for staff entries – after all students have already had about three weeks to work on their ideas in school and at home.  So, let’s say 8th January for staff. The same rules apply of course (see earlier Posts for all the details and links to examples of great mind maps by people like Paul Foreman).

Over the Christmas holiday Mrs Mills and I will have a think about  a few additional prizes for the best staff entries.

The Mind Mapping Competition’s Going Ahead!

Over the last few days we’ve had quite a lot of interest expressed in the competition,  so we’ll run it.

The entry requirements are as detailed on the earlier Post. Maps should be submitted on A4 or A3 paper (See me if you need paper).

The competition is open to all students and the closing date is 8th December.

Entries must be handed in direct to me or to Mrs Mills in the Library.

1st Prize – £50 voucher for a shop of your choice

2nd Prize – £25 voucher for a shop of your choice

3rd Prize – £20 voucher for a shop of your choice

4th Prize – £10 voucher for a shop of your choice

5th Prize – £5 voucher for a shop of your choice

Now it’s over to you – get mind mapping!

Sharing Poems We Like

I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to know about your favourite poems. We already have a really good collection of poetry in the Library but want to buy some new poetry books.

Please send through a comment to this Post telling us the title(s) of your favourite poem(s) and remember to include the name(s) of the poet(s) too.

If the poem hasn’t been published, please send through a copy of the full text so that other people can read and enjoy it too.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

A.Garratt

Paul Foreman’s Mind Maps

If you liked the Happiness mind map (it’s still one of my favourites and apparently was the first one he ever drew), you should really have a look at Paul Foreman’s website at www.mindmapinspiration.co.uk  where you’ll find lots of fantastic examples of inspirational mind maps. There are also a numberof  free downloads, including some mind mapping templates that you could use.

Paul Foreman also has a Blog at www.mindmapinspiration.com where you can keep up to date with his latest maps and news.

 

The Science Museum’s Centenary Poll – An Independent Enquirer and Creative Thinker Challenge

I picked this up from the BBC News page earlier in the week.

As part of its centenary events the Science Museum in London  selected 10 of the most significant objects in science, engineering, technology and medicine.

Members of the public were then asked to vote for the invention that they thought had made the greatest impact on the past, the present and the future. Nearly 50,00 votes were cast with 1 in 5 people voting for the winning invention.

These were the results:

1st place – X-ray Machines; 2nd place – Penicillin; 3rd place – DNA Double Helix; 4th place – Apollo 10 Capsule; 5th place V2 Rocket Engine; 6th place – Stephenson’s Rocket; 7th place Pilot Ace Computer; 8th place – Steam Engine; 9th place – Model T Ford; 10th place – Electric Telegraph

The particluar X-ray machine that the public voted for was the Reynolds machine which is on display in the Museum’s Making the Modern World Gallery. It was a ‘do -it -yourself ‘ experiment by a father and son who were so inspired by the news of the discovery of the X-ray that they set about building the equipment in their own home.

Katie Maggs, the Science museum’s curator, said: ‘It’s very inspirational to budding scientists to learn that an invention now declared the most important in world history could be pioneered by enthusiastic amateur inventors.’

The Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, said: ‘Any competition that pits the Apollo 10 spacecraft against Stephenson’s Rocket, and the DNA Double Helix against the model T Ford, is bound to provide talking points aplenty. The public’s choice of the X-Ray machine as the winner is testament to our insatiable curiosity to find out how things work.’

I wonder what order you might put these objects in. You’d certainly need to do some Independent Enquirer work find out more about them before you decided.  If you’re interested you can find some information about all of the items at the Science Musuem’s website at

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/Centenary/Home.aspx

 Remember to check in Britannica online too which is accessible  through the Ashlawn website.

I also wondered what discoveries or inventions you think there might be in the next 100 years. What might you live to see? You’ll need to use your imagination and Creative Thinker skills for this one.

Give it some thought and, if you’d like to, send through your ideas as a comment to this Post. You could, of course, put your thinking into the form of a mind map and enter the competition we’re thinking about. If you’re interested in doing that, let us know by sending through a  comment to that Post.

A Garratt

Tony Buzan – The Man Who Invented Mind Mapping and 10 Top Exam Tips

During this week several students have asked me where they can find out more about Tony Buzan and his ideas. The best place is his website at

www.buzanworld.com

If you go to the Mind Maps section,  in the Great Mind Map Gallery  you’ll  find some amazing mind maps on subjects such as World Peace, Exercises for Relaxation and De-Stressing, Our Planet Needs Help, The Week Ahead and 10 Top Exam Tips. Have a browse. They’ll get you thinking!

There’s also a shop where I’ve bought a DVD called Unleashing Genius. It came out earlier this year and looks good.

Next week Mrs Mills and I will be ordering several of Tony Buzan’s books for you to borrow. They should be on the catalogue by December.

A Garratt

A Mind Mapping Competition?

During the course of your P.S.H.E. lessons this week you will have been introduced to the idea of mind mapping by Tony Buzan, the man who invented the whole idea.

You’ll have learned that mind mapping is a great way to develop your Creative Thinker skills, become an even more successful learner, cut down on the amount of time you need to spend on your studies and have fun with your learning.  3 really good reasons to learn to mind map, we hope you agree!

A Garratt

As so many of you have already begun to create some really great mind maps, we thought it might be a good idea to have an Ashlawn mind mapping competition. We could have 3 categories:

1. Mind Maps on any school subject (either the whole subject or particular aspects of it)
2. Mind maps on any one or more of the ST ERIC skills (Self Manager; Team Worker: Effective Participant; Reflective Learner; Independent Enquirer and Creative Thinker)
3. ‘Freestyle’ mind maps which can be about anything you like (I’ve already seen some very promising maps on subjects like Chocolate, Cheese, Formula 1, Sports, Treasures, Christmas, Family, Love, Friendship and Ashlawn itself!)

Your mind maps could be hand drawn or created using mind mapping software. Whichever way you choose to do it though, the work must be original and you’ll need to keep to the rules shown in the 10 Steps to Making Great Mind Maps PowerPoint. You’ll find a copy of this on our Library Blog and also on my other Blog at www.anngarratt.wordpress.com

Before we make a decision, we’d like to get an idea of how many of you would like to enter the competition. If you’d like to be involved, send a comment through to this Post  telling us what subject you’d like to mind map.

Look out for news here soon about whether we’ll be going ahead with the competition. What we can promise is that we’ll have some really good prizes for our winners!

Looking forward to hearing from you.

A Garratt

Red and Purple Poppies for Remembrance

It is at this time of year that many of us like to buy and wear red poppies. The red poppies are a reminder of all those members of the armed forces who have lost their lives in wars.

The money raised from the sale of the poppies goes to the Royal British Legion, a charity that works to provide financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served, or are serving, in the armed forces. The Legion also helps the dependants of members of the armed forces.

If you’d like to find out more about what the Royal British Legion does, go to the website at www.britishlegion.org.uk

Occasionally you will see people wearing purple poppies. These too are for remembrance. They commemorate all those animals who have suffered and died in human conflicts. Animals have been used as messengers, beasts of burden, for detection, scouting, rescue and on the front line in many parts of the world.

If you’d like to find out more about what the Royal British Legion does, go to the website at www.animalaid.org.uk

The Quick Start Guide to Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping – AGa’s Quick Start Guide PowerPoint

This file is a copy of the PowerPoint you will have seen in your lessons. Use it whenever you want to remind yourself of The 10 Steps to Making Great Mind Maps or when you want to look at some brilliant mind maps.

Remember mind maps are great for developing your Creative Thinker skills and becoming a more successful learner. They’re fun to do too!