Geographical Map

I had oddly enough decided to do a geographical map.  Initially I was leaning towards doing a concept map, but decided against it.  I chose a fairly simple geographical location to map because I have never mad a map like this before.  I did not want to broad topic.  I chose to map a small section of Bristol.  My first step was finding map of Bristol that showed a close-up image of the town.  I used the website Mapquest becase the site allows users to type in very specific locations.

I began mapping out the street I live on, State Street.  I made that street name the most prominent because it is the most important street to me.  Despite the map being geographical, I wanted personal touches added to it.  Another location I marked on state street was the restaurant Nacho Mama's.  I love the food there and frequented the restaurant often during the summer. 

My map only extended to the portion of Hope Street in the direction towards the Roger Williams campus.  The other streets included in the map are prominent Bristol streets.  Included in the streets is Hope, Church, High, Wood, Constitution, Union and 1st.  On each street, with exception of Union and Constitution, I put marked a specific place in Bristol.  To find the exact locations of each business or restaurant I searched for their addresses on google and then on mapquest.  It was tedious, but the purpose of a geographical map is accuracy. 

I wanted the map to have a lot of color.  Since geographical maps are often times dull in color, I wanted to do something different.  I really enjoyed this project.  I thought that it would be easier than it was though.  I thought that I new the exact locations of all of the places I chose to highlight but I did not.  This map was completely different than a mind map, but still compeltely useful to further my knowledge about the importance of Visual Communications.

Mind Maps

My problem in the center of my mind map is Post-Graduation.  The first mind map I did was very practical.  I was thinking of tangible things such as location, people, and money.  I did have difficulty letting myself think freely.  The 20-minute mapping period went by very slowly.  I took a lot of pauses and time to think instead of just writing.  After waiting an hour, I returned to my map and added a little color to it using colored pencils.  In my mind though, I knew I did not love this map or particularly care for it.  I think that is because I didn't allow myself to fully reflect. 

I returned to the project 24 hours later.  I had the same problem in the center of my mind map, post-graduation.  This time I decided to use a different approach.  My subtopics were from the emotional side of me.  My key terms were Stress, Fear, Change, Strength, and Loneliness.  All of these ideas are abstract an intangible.  My new approach proved to be more successful than my previous mind map.  I was able to think more freely and let my ideas flow naturally.  I got better results from the second mind map than the first, possibly because my concepts were driven by emotion rather than practicality.  I do feel as though mind mapping is a helpful tool for problem solving.  While my problem can't exactly be solved by mean of a mind map, it made me feel less overwhelmed.  I was able to organize my thoughts in some sort of way.  Rather than having all of these thoughts floating around in my head, I wrote them down and now have a firmer grip on my worries.  While I do still have stress about what I will do after graduation, like most seniors do, I know that I should not let my fears get the best of me.