Maybe you made these in high school. Basically, a mind map is a visual way of organizing thoughts, observations, bits of information. It can be a helpful way to record your ideas about your work of art and design. Often, TMW students do a mind map with an image of their work in the middle and text boxes branching off of it.
There is no one way to make a mind map. It can be messy or neat. It can be done by hand or on a computer. There are many free mind mapping programs online. Or just grab some paper and color markers!
Pay attention to which parts of your mind map get the most treatment. Maybe you spend a lot of time making observations about how you used texture in your work of art. That is a sign that texture is something you want to research in your paper, and you will want to discover another artist who also focuses on texture and you can then compare your work to theirs.
Image: Austin Kleon, Mind Map of Edward Tufte's book Beautiful Evidence.