Concept Capture
By: Calvin Bacon
Overview: Sometimes to really understand something, one needs to think of it from a theoretical point of view. For instance, one could say that sending someone flowers is about gifting. Conceptually sending someone a bouquet of flowers helps convey some sort of emotion … maybe sympathy or love or friendship. Understanding the underlying concept of what something actually is helps in finding conceptual relationships.
Purpose: This tool allows participants to practice finding the concepts behind objects or things.
Participants: From ten to twenty.
Materials: Chart pad and markers.
Time: 20 minutes
Procedure:
- Write the following key words on the chart pad: Feastival, Train, Razor (you may substitute other words if you want).
- Ask participants to identify the underlying concept behind each of them.
- It is OK for participant to decide that there are different possible underlying concepts or more than one concept.
- Ask some of the participants to share their concepts.
- Ask why some concepts are different.
Debrief: Where all the concepts reasonable? Did you find the concepts depended on a certain perspective or meaning of the words? How might the underlying concept affect the possible relationship between items? This debrief should help participants see that relatedness is not just a matter of physical attributes but also a matter of relationship between underlying concepts.
