Basic Processes Knowledge Mapping II: Basic Processes Exercises with SemNet® Teacher's Guide
Time		This exercise takes approximately 1 hour.
Objectives			Once you have completed this knowledge mapping exercise you should be able to:
		1.	Create good descritions of important concepts using relations and related concepts.
		2.	Understand that relations need to make sense in both directions. SemNet is essentially a thinking, discussion, and knowledge organization tool that can help students to clarify their ideas and understandings about the biologylessons. Click below to download the SemNet "1.4hBasic Processes", which is a completed network showing how we have put together the ideas in the Basic Processes Lesson. This net provides a useful exemplar and guide, but it should not be considered THE right answer. It is important to understand that we all think in different ways. There are multiple correct ways, and multiple incorrect ways, to put these ideas together. You will have to use your judgment, reviewing each net as if it were an essay.
Background Information		Describing Osmosis
		1.	This lab focuses on some very basic processes that occur throughout living systems. Processes are more difficult than other ideas to map in a semantic network format. For this reason, in our first efforts at mapping biology knowledge, we will provide a lot of help.
Question		2.	Let's begin by thinking about osmosis. See if you can fill in the blanks below. Read the lines out from the center and fill in the verb to be (is or are) as necessary. For example, the first instance on the left reads: Osmosis occurs at site __________.' To fill in the blank, ask yourself where osmosis occurs. (Hint: osmosis always occurs at a semipermeable membrane). The second instance reads: 'Osmosis is a type of __________.' To fill in this blank, ask yourself what general class of reactions is osmosis part of? (Hint: we have studied this class of reactions).
Figure 1. Osmosis frame from SemNet with Related Concepts Masked. Fill in the blanks.
Background		3.	The relation, occurs at site, points to a box containing room for two concepts. In this case, that means you should try and name two general areas where osmosis occurs. You can check your responses with Figure 3.
Figure 2. Osmosis frame from SemNet with Related Concepts UnMasked. A major goal of this lesson is to demonstrate to students what a good description of a concept looks like. When students first start working in SemNet, many of them tend to connect each concept to one other concept, forming a linear chain. This is NOT adequate. Each key concept should be given a full description which includes its distinguishing features and which does not include extraneous material. That is, the description should be concise, precise, and complete. Students should never be asked to memorize these maps. The value of asking students to generate the maps is that they are doing the thinking. It is important that you understand that the wording is fairly arbitrary. For example, two different descriptions of diffusion are given below.
Figure 3. Diffusion, first representation
Figure 4. Diffusion, second representation. These two representations of diffusion look quite different at first glance. Yet, in our judgment, both are acceptable. They both tell us, in their own ways, that diffusion involves the movement of molecules from higher to lower concentrations and occurs primarily in liquids and gases. Figure 3 emphasizes that the migrating molecules are affected by the concentration of those molecules (and not others), which can be helpful but which we do not judge to be essential. Figure 3 also mentions that diffusion occurs in living cells, which we are particularly interested in, but this also isn't essential; living cells are a special example of where liquids are found. Figure 4 tells us that diffusion is a spontaneous process - a helpful bit of information, but not an essential part of the definition. These are the kinds of judgments you will need to make when you review student nets. The following exercise uses 1.4d2 Osmosis Relations, a SemNet with relations only. To download this SemNet, click on the button, below.
Question		4.	Do you think Figure 2 contains all the essential or defining features you know about osmosis? Make a note if you think anything more should be added. If any of these instances do not make sense to you, discuss them with your teacher and/or peers.
To Do		5.	Open the net called 'Osmosis Relations'. Select 'Save As' from the File menu. Enter the name 'YourLastName, Osmosis' in the box. Select the folder where you want to save this file and click on the 'Save As' button.
		6.	Use the 'Create' command on the Instance menu as you did in creating your family net to create the osmosis frame shown above. There are seven related concepts. That means you will have to go through the process of creating an instance seven times.
		7.	Each of the relation rays shown in Figure 2 should be available on the pop-up menu next to the center box in the Create an Instance dialog. Click and hold on the down button and move your cursor up or down until you find the relation ray you want to use. With that relation ray selected (highlighted), release the mouse button, and the ray will appear in the relation box in the center of your Create an Instance dialog.
Question		8.	When you have completed the frame in Figure 2, read each instance from the central concept (osmosis) to the related concept. Does it sound like a sentence, if a little abbreviated? Does it make sense to you? Is it correct? For example, the first instance (beginning at the top) would read: 'osmosis [is a] type< of diffusion'
To Do		9.	Next, double-click on the first related concept, beginning at the top with diffusion and read the reverse relation ray, which in this case is: 'diffusion has type osmosis'
		10.	Repeat this process with each of the other related concepts, reading each reverse relation ray. You will have to return to osmosis (by double-clicking) to get to the next related concept easily.
		11.	The seven reverse instances you should have read were: Table 1. Reverse Instances in Osmosis Frame. Related Concept Reverse Relation Ray Concept diffusion has type osmosis water do [does] the moving in osmosis higher concentration of H20 source of H20 movement in osmosis semipermeable membrane site of H20 movement in osmosis lower concentration of H2 destination of H2 in osmosis living cells site of occurrence of osmosis artificial semipermeable member. site of occurrence of osmosis
Powerful Idea		12.	The important ideas are that (a) relations need to make sense in both directions, and (b) whenever you create a relation, you should take the time to read it both directions to make sure that it does make sense. Fortunately, most of the relations you will be creating are simpler than these so it won't be as difficult as it may look.
To Do		13.	Select 'Relations - Creation Order' on the Display menu. It should provide you with the information below, in a slightly different arrangement. Can you interpret the list on the screen? Table 2. Relations in the Osmosis Net. 1st Relation Ray Direction ( o'clock) 2nd Relation Ray Direction ( o'clock) has type 6:00 type of 12:00 involves movement of 2:00 do [does] the moving in 10:00 H20 moves from 3:00 source of H20 movement in 4:00 involves H20 moving thru 5:00 site of H20 movement in 11:00 H20 moves to 4:00 destination of H20 in 10:00 site of occurrence of 4:00 occurs at site 10:00
		14.	Save your net. You will continue working with this net in the next few lessons.
Review			You have constructed your first SemNet screen describing an important concept in biology, osmosis. The description we created is fairly complete, including important distinguishing features that set osmosis off from a closely related concept such as diffusion. This illustrates the quality of the descriptions you will want to generate for each important idea you include in your net. There should be multiple instances connected to each key idea, and those instances should contain the most important things to know about that idea.