Meena Kharatmal

Research Area

Our approach investigates the representation of scientific knowledge by focusing on the relation names rather than

on the concept names. Usually a proposition comprises of concepts and relation names (linking words). Concepts attain

meaning from the relations with other concepts. ...

Thesis Topic

Effectiveness of Refined Concept Maps in Science Education.

Objectives

• To represent the domain of Cell Biology at the school, college and undergraduate level: This involves to represent

the structures and process of cell biology. I use refined concept maps (RCM) for representing the structural aspects. The

refined concept maps are development over the traditional concept maps. The RCM focuses on the use of a set of

relation names for mapping in order to resolve the ambiguities and bring in rigor in representation of scientific knowledge.

For representing the processes, I am applying the state-change model i.e. depicting processes as changes in the state of

structures.

• To develop a minimal set of relation names:
  

• To develop a set of process names:
  

• To apply the RCM & Process Modelling in school, college, university student:
  

• To compare the representation of novice and expert:
  

• To trace the conceptual change in learning by applying the KR model:
  

Areas of Interest

Knowledge Representation, Cognitive Science, Educational Psychology, Science Education,

Refined Concept Maps, Conceptual Change, Novice-Expert, Structure and Dynamics of Knowledge,

History and Philosophy of Science, bio-ontology, cell biology, biology education

Visiting Student

• Mimos, Semantic Web Technology Lab, Kualalumpur, Malaysia
  
• University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
  

• Institute of Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, Florida, USA
  

Publications

• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G.: Introducing rigor in concept maps. In M. Croitoru, S. Ferre, and D. Lukose (Eds.), ICCS 2010, LNAI 6208, pp. 199-202, Springer Verlag 2010.

• Meena Kharatmal (2009): Concept Mapping for Eliciting Students' Understanding of Science. Indian Educational Review, 45(2), pp.31-43.
• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2009): Refined Concept Maps for Science Education: A Feasibility Study   epiSTEME-3, Mumbai, India.
• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2008): Exploring the Roots of Rigor: A Proposal of a Methodology for Analyzing the Conceptual Change from a Novice to an Expert  CMC2008, Tallinn, Estonia & Helsinki, Finland
• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2007): An Alternative Proposal for Eliciting and Assessing Students’ Knowledge Structure  epiSTEME-2, India
• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2006): A Proposal To Refine Concept Mapping for Effective Science Learning  CMC2006, Costa Rica
• Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2004): Understanding Science Through Knowledge Organizers . epiSTEME-1, India
• Refined Concept Map Wikipedia Article

Virtual Existence

• Email: meena [at] hbcse [dot] tifr [dot] res [dot] in
  
• Blog Okeanos http://okeanos.wordpress.com
• Twitter http://twitter.com/meena74 
• Friendfeed http://friendfeed.com/meena74
  

• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/meena74
• SlideShare http://www.slideshare.net/meena74
• FOAF http://gnowledge.org/~meena/foaf.rdf
  

Conferences

International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Kuching, Malaysia, July 2010

epiSTEME 3, Mumbai, India, Jan 2009

epiSTEME 2, Mumbai, India, Jan 2007

Concept Mapping Conference, Costa Rica, Sep 2006 

epiSTEME 1, Goa, India, Dec 2004