In my classroom I am often using brainstorming activates to my students generate new ideas especially when I they say “I can’t think of anything”. This is often the student’s initial reaction because of barriers to the brainstorming process, a lotus diagram can be a powerful tool to help facilitate the brainstorming process and get students past these initial barriers to the process. Lotus diagrams provide an excellent visual framework for organizing and expanding brainstorming sessions in the classroom.
What is a Lotus Diagram?
A lotus diagram is a grid of three by three squares with each square broken up into a three by three grid, the center major square is used to hold the main idea or topic with the surrounding eight squares holding a related idea or subtopic. Often the central idea square will have the outer squares color coded with each of center squares in the center square of the out grid squares. This is allows for sub topics or ideas to be explored further to build idea or conceptual relationships.
How to use a Lotus Diagram in class?
Lotus diagrams are often paper handouts, but in the section below we have included a lotus diagram template that is colored coded already and can be typed into directly with Google Docs or Microsoft Word and can be printed for students to fill-out on paper.
Students should be given the central theme or idea to work around and this should be put in the center square.
Then ask students to come up with eight ideas or concepts related to this main theme, idea or topic and have them enter this into each of the squares surrounding the center square (student can adjust font size to fit this in).
Next the should copy the related ideas or concepts that are surrounding the main idea into the associated colored squares in the outer grids.
Finally, they should take some time and fill out details or deep-conceptual information related to the central square of each idea.