Stimulating curiosity
What is in this box? How did this happen? What is with the questions? It is about answering the question why and how can we stimulate the curiosity of the students.
One of the most fascinating things is the motion of free-falling bodies. Galileo, in his book “On Motion,” said that the weight of the falling bodies is independent of its speed. This fact, however, is only applicable to gravity. Try throwing a baseball by making a baseball pitch and throwing a basketball by making a baseball pitch, which of them will get further and move faster? The baseball of course because it is lighter than the basketball.
In Physics, one of the disciplines in Science discussed in the subject Physical Science, there is a topic on the difference between the everyday English definition of the word acceleration and the scientific definition of the word acceleration. There is actually a difference: in everyday English, it is the state of increasing speed; in science, it is the rate of change of velocity with time. Another topic that can spark curiosity is the distinction between Galileo’s claim that force is not needed to maintain horizontal motion and Newton’s 1st Law of Motion also known as the Law of Inertia, the latter stating the object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and direction unless it is acted on by an unbalanced force.
Mixing myths with the truth can also help just like what I wrote on the myths related to the truth of the earth being spherical. The segregation of the truth from the myths will help people remember the true knowledge more because an emphasis is being made. Demonstrations or showing a comparing or contrasting of two or more things through a video or showing the actual things you have to compare will help create curiosity and awe within your students. The curiosity gets the attention of the student; the awe helps in maintaining that focus which will help in making the things the students are learning being more likely to stick with them. If there is anything that can captivate the attention of the person, it is the things that seem strange or fascinating and the gap between is happening and what should be happening.
Once you get the person’s attention, you would be able to make them curious enough to care. Stimulating curiosity is about finding the strangest of things, showing those strange things to the students, and not giving away the details immediately to make people care. Do not show all of the cards you have immediately. One of the scientific habits is curiosity. Curiosity is the instrument in creating epiphanies that became the scientific knowledge we have today. Curiosity helps us find the answers we need.
That is why we need to spark curiosity in our students. Who knows? Maybe that curiosity can unleash the inner scientist in them and it can make them pursue a scientific career. Let us question everything to find answers and to learn new things.