The Curiosity Shoppe
to promote inquiry-based learning in K-12 education by igniting curiosity through
mechanical puzzles, abstract & serious games, recreational math, and Maker culture
The Curiosity Shoppe is an online community and student-curated resource center embracing 1,000+ mechanical puzzles, serious & abstract games, recreational math resources, and Maker gadgets. Our focus is the enjoyment of playful thinking that strengthens the excecutive functions & critical thinking and progressively resembles the 'design cycles' of the age-old professions. See About and Learning Communities for descriptions of our mission and the organizations that inform & inspire our investigations.
New Curiosities
&
Calendar of Events
Puzzles , Games, Gadgets, Books
Ongoing Compilations & Projects
to support educators, collectors, and designers
Sept. 30, 2019
The 160+ articles selected for this slideshow have special relevance for content areas taught in middle/high school to provoke curiosity, civic-minded discussion, and interest in STEM careers. April 2018 - August 2019.
August 4, 2019
Digital Dilemma: The Digital Citizenship Card Game
Version - Beta 6a card game being designed in the The Curiosity Shoppe(rev. 8.06.19)
July 11, 2019
July 11, 2019
Exploration Chronology
June 1, 2019
Jan. 19, 2019
Jan. 10, 2019
Dec. 26, 2018
Dec. 23, 2018
Sept. 30, 2018
Aug. 11, 2018
aka 'The Secrets of a Happy Life' (The Farhan Ali Memorial Puzzle Box)
a reviewby Bob Nordling
July 5, 2018
Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Curiosity Shoppe Website!
by Bob NordlingOur "student curators" have been released on good behavior from their shackles for Summer Break. So we will be taking this time to transfer our Curiosity Shoppe 'knowledge-base' to this new public site to create wider dialogue between educators, collectors, and designers within the puzzle, game, recreational math, maker, and K-12 academic communities.
The first phase of this 'grand openness' is to gather, organize, and keep current all known active links to the organizations, blogs, vendors, publications, videos, etc. that are relevant to our communities. The second phase will be to add layers of insight over these resources to aid those new to our communities to recognize the connectedness of our various pursuits and discover new paths of wonder to travel. Finally, we hope to persuade those long-time travelers, the expert explorers within our communities, to describe the frontiers to which their perseverance has allowed them to travel and to provide a rough map to guide others on their paths of wonder.
" To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield' - Tennyson, "Ulysses", a poem
"I'm sure I could stop any time I wanted to, but I'm not a quitter!" (on puzzle collecting) - Allard Walker, "Puzzling Times", a blog
"So, hopefully some of my designs will inspire people to think, imagine, and create, for there is yet an infinity of things to do." - Doug Engel, "puzzleATOMic" a website
A path of wonder that I have been pursuing for the past 25 years is the development of a plausible and cohesive framework which educators & designers, parents & collectors, can use to create/select particular types of experiences beneficial for growing specific human potentials (executive functions, critical thinking skills). I will be relying on the good judgment of fellow travelers here to help fill in the potholes encountered along the way. Stay curious!