CURIOSITY

Curiosity is realizing gaps in knowledge and then setting out to find answers to fill in those gaps. This is a powerful and basic understanding of knowledge. As Linus Pauling says "Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life" (Adding TEC Variety, pg. 92).

Satisfying one's curiosity is not always fun. Filling the gaps may involve challenges, failures, criticism, and frustration. There is a certain level of disequilibrium involved. Finding the knowledge to fill the gaps can be very fulfilling though.

Curiosity is necessarily internal and hard to force from the external, which makes teaching curiosity difficult to achieve. Learners must find their own gaps. A teacher can create environments and activities to help students discover those gaps for themselves.

Curiosity can be cultivated through open-ended tasks with many different paths through the learning. Connecting with external links, resources, experts, and content can expand student learning.

These are the different activities listed in the textbook

most of these revolve around the idea of connecting students to ideas and activities outside of the classroom.

21. Online Events in the News

Use news items to supplement learning, draw interest in a presentation, add real world relevance to content, anchor knowledge in content, encourage learners to find out more information.

Allow students to use news articles as a way to jump into deeper research or find common themes.

22. Live Science, Creative Expression, or Artistic Invention

Use the internet to connect to live events as they are happening. Live events, reports, interviews, podcasts, performances, and video streams are just some of the things that can be monitored or even participated in.

Students can find connections between classroom content and real world happenings.

23. Live Scientific Discovery or Invention

Big scientific findings or theories tend to be announced with a series of coordinated activities. A teacher can use the activities as a way to connect classroom learning to the real world.

24. Just-In-Time Syllabus

Can update the syllabus and course resources to incorporate data from the real world. The idea is to leave your syllabus fairly open and add relevant content as needed.

Resources can be adapted and chosen to relate to individual class and/or student needs. Course can evolve each semester or even each day.

Role of teacher shifts from deliverer of content to curator of content.

25. Just-In-Time Teaching

Students complete tasks or assignment prior to class so that class time can be freed up for other activities. By understanding where the students are at in their knowledge, the presentation for the day can be adapted as needed.

This allows for more student engagement and participation as well as more focused teaching.

26. What's My Line Guest Games

Invite a guest to lecture or present to the class. Have an activity for the students to learn about the guest through a series of yes or no questions. \

Students can continue to learn about the guest through online searches for additional information. Collected information can be used as extra resources for the topic being studied.

27. A Day in the Life of a Scientist, Scholar, or Celebrity

Students can track famous individuals in the field. Students can create blog posts, forum posts, paper, etc based on an imaginary event in the person's life.

Description focuses on living people with current social media output, but can be adapted for historical figures. By taking on the identity of the person, students are able to shift their understanding.

28. Cultural or Contextual Blogs and Resources

Textbooks tend to be limited homogenous cultural contexts, but online resources allow for more cultural diversity.Students can become engaged by learning content about things they normally wouldn't encounter in textbooks.

Can open up limited cultural perspectives. Can also include relevant underrepresented cultures of students within the classroom.

29. Exreme Learning

Also known as Adventure Learning.

Use of technology in unusual or nontraditional ways. Connect students with relevant real world activities. There is no set activity or approach for this process, adapt as necessary.

30. Quests and Probes on the Web

Personalize the learning by having students ask questions about a topic and then go research answers online.

these are the discussion questions you will be answering on the class site

Discussion Question

What technologies are used in the video in order to spur students’ curiosity? Do you think any of them is helpful to your teaching subject? How?

"Curiosity arouses human interest in pursuing some intriguing piece of information or kernel of knowledge" (Adding Some TEC-Variety, pg. 92).

This mind-map is a collection of information on Curiosity in Education. Students are encouraged to explore the content at their own pace and in their own order, so there is no set presentation order. The non-linear nature of the personal exploration allows for discovery and deeper engagement with the content.

Check out the website -->

Description

Back in 2011, a series of billboards went up all over the midwest advertising a pharmaceutical called "Reachemol" with clever taglines. No other information was given on the billboards. People whose curiosity had been aroused searched the net and were led to the Reachemol website.

Explanation

Any link selected on the website leads to the explanation. The campaign was actually a ploy to sell outdoor advertising (aka billboards). Adams Outdoor put up the ads on their own unrented billboards. Reachemol (pronounced Reach 'Em All) was a way to show how powerful billboards could be. The success of the campaign led to many new orders and so the Reachemol billboards were taken down relatively quickly.

Curiosity driven learning: Aya Sakaguchi at TEDxBeaconStreet

Collaborative Curiosity: Designing Community-Engaged Research

The power of curiosity - Amy Singh's chocolate story at TEDxPrague 2013

Adding Some TEC Variety

Pages 91-114

Teach Thought - Learning Strategies

Faculty Focus / the Teaching Professor Blog - Cultivating Curiosity

Education Week - How Can Teachers Foster Curiosity

Educational Leadership - The Case for Curiosity

Edutopia -Why Curiosity Enhances Learning

Subject Matter Experts

Chad Bennett

Jia Guo

Starter/Wrappers

Dan Boisture

Rachael Haas

Cool Resource Provider

Xiao Tan