Activity 4

Welcome back for our fourth and final activity! 

For this activity, we'll be reflecting and setting goals.

One of the big differences between the way experts think and problem solve and the way novices think and problem solve is in the organization of their knowledge. Experts have highly organized and connected knowledge, making it flexible, pliable and usable in many situations. Novices, of course, have much more limited organization to their knowledge and also have fewer connections between concepts and situations. So novices have more limited access to using that knowledge. 

When we teach using curiosity-fostering techniques, students  have many different experiences that can seem large and nebulous. We must help them make sense of that knowledge on the back end. Instead of "front loading" with our lectures, we work on the back end to help students make connections between the experiences they had and the important knowledge they need. The good news is that since students have already had experiences and worked within that concept, we only have to address areas where students struggled. They are also much more interested in what we have to say after they have worked and possibly struggled a bit with that concept! 

So for this activity, we'll work on making connections and organizing our knowledge of curiosity fostering techniques. 

At the end of this activity, participants will:

• • Complete a vision of ways in which each will foster curiosity in his/her STEMx classroom

  • Establish goals for continually refining your understanding of ways to foster curiosity

Vision

When we think about our vision of designing curiosity fostering student work, we want to consider all aspects of the learning environment. Consider the classroom environment, the tools and resources the students will use, the ways they interact with the tools and resources, the role of the teacher in the learning, the role of the students and the types of learning activities you deem important. Because we know that organization of knowledge is so important, try to use one of the models we learned in this class to frame your thinking!

Based on what you learned in this mini-course, write about your vision of curiosity fostering learning that you will foster in your classroom. There are no wrong answers! 

Goals

As educators, we understand the value of goals! We have come a long way since Activity 1 and our previous work was to reflect back on that journey. Now, we need to turn our attention to the future! Go ahead and set some goals of ways you will continually refine your understanding of fostering curiosity in your classroom. 

For example, it really helps me when I ask students about the work that they just completed. Their responses give me insights into the work that I can't get any other way. I combine those insights with my observations of the students and my evaluations of what they learned from that work to make a determination about the value of the work. So, I have a goal that I try to always ask my students about the work I have designed so that I don't miss out on their perspective. Your goal can be anything that helps you in your quest to foster curiosity in your students!