In this activity, students explore the web of connections that shape their everyday lives, including relationships with people, places, communities, and even non-human elements such as nature, objects, and rituals. By mapping these connections, students gain insight into which relationships energize them and which feel more distant or draining. This helps students become more aware of the systems they are part of and encourages them to reflect on how different connections influence their sense of belonging, well-being, and engagement.
- Activity goal
- Reflect
- When
- In class | Post class | Pre class
- Where
- Offline
- Duration
- < 60 minutes
- Group size
- Small | Medium
Step-by-step plan
Step 1: Introduction
Explain to students that everyone exists within a web of connections that includes people, places, communities, and non-human elements such as nature, objects, or rituals. Tell them that in this activity they will map these connections to better understand which relationships give them energy and which feel more distant.
Step 2: Create a connection map
Ask students to draw a personal map of their connections, including people, places, communities, and meaningful non-human elements (e.g. pets, hobbies, or traditions). They can represent closeness or distance using visual elements such as circles, lines, or colors.
Let students indicate which connections feel energizing and which feel distant or draining, for example by using stars or dashed lines.
Step 3: Pairing up to discuss the connection map
Invite students to pair up and share one insight from their map. This could be something surprising or meaningful they noticed about their connections.
Encourage active listening by asking students to listen without interrupting or giving advice, and to respond with curiosity. You may provide simple sentence starters such as “I noticed that…” or “I was surprised that…”.
Step 4: Individual reflection and follow up actions.
Ask students to reflect on their connection map individually. Provide guiding questions such as:
- What patterns do you notice in your connections?
- Which connections give you energy, and why?
- How do your connections influence your sense of belonging?
- Which connections would you like to strengthen or develop? And how are you going to do that?
Consider the tools and materials mentioned here as suggestions. In many cases it’s possible to use alternative tools. Please turn to the Learning & Innovation team of your faculty first to see which online and offline tools are available and how to apply them.
Offline
- Paper and pens/markers, optionally sticky notes for visualizing connections
Tip 1
- Model the activity by giving an example yourself and showing an example connection map.
