Igniting Student Curiosity in Math and Science Lessons

In early elementary school, we’re encouraged to welcome every “why” and “what if,” and then a shift happens. Students go from asking why to asking what’s on the test. The natural curiosity that drives kindergartners to ask a million questions seems to lessen each school year. We start rewarding right answers more than right questions. But we don’t have to. Instead, we can create a culture of curiosity by designing our classrooms for questions.

We can reignite the natural curiosity that lives within every student by intentionally weaving question-asking into the fabric of our daily lessons. When students understand that their questions are not just welcomed but essential to their learning, we ignite curiosity in our schools.

nurturing curiosity through a Driving Question Board in science

Science phenomena are the everyday things we see happening around us. Phenomena make us question: Why do leaves change color in the fall? What caused the cucumber I was growing in my garden to turn yellow? What causes a volcanic eruption?

If you think about it, you’re probably wondering many things about the world around you every single day. Humans are wired to wonder. Teachers can normalize wonder by starting each unit or lesson with a question or collection of questions, especially questions generated by students. When science instruction is grounded in phenomena, students begin to find that the questions they have are really just phenomena they have not yet come to understand and that science can be used to explain the causes of the phenomena.

To capture this natural curiosity in the classroom, teachers can create a Driving Question Board (DQB), which creates a physical space for students to keep track of their wonders. Students can write down questions on sticky notes and post them on the DQB.

Posting student questions publicly deprivatizes curiosity, making it a public process instead of something only occurring in one’s mind. Teachers can then reference these questions throughout the unit, not only aiming to answer the specific questions, but actively demonstrating that questions are a valuable part of learning. Thus, making curiosity a shared classroom value.

At the beginning of the unit, teachers can present a grounding phenomenon that will help spark curiosity in students. Then, students can take time to independently generate questions and add them to the board. Throughout the unit, students can cross off questions as they get answered or add new questions as they arise. Ending the unit with more questions normalizes wonder and acknowledges the ongoing nature of curiosity. These unanswered questions create opportunities for students to extend learning beyond the classroom.

nurturing curiosity through 3-Act Tasks in math

Dan Meyer popularized the 3-Act Math Task, a problem-based lesson structure designed to spark curiosity and engage students in real-world problem-solving, saying in his 2010 TED Talk that “we just give problems to students. We don't involve them in the formulation of the problem.” These tasks engage students by presenting a scenario through a hook (Act 1), challenging them to investigate and explore to solve the problem (Act 2), and revealing the solution for reflection and discussion (Act 3).

In a 3-Act task, students typically view an image or video in the first act and are asked, “What do you notice?” “What do you wonder?” For example, after seeing several images of a willow tree wrapped in sticky tape covered with spotted lantern fly nymphs, middle school students make observations and pose questions. Teachers should note all questions on the board, even though some questions may not be related to the lesson’s objectives.

All curiosity should be validated, but some ideas will be explored more deeply, depending on the intent of the problem posed. Curiosity, after all, is the gap between what we know and what we want to know, so asking students what they know and what they wonder helps create the space where their curiosity is explored. Celebrate the uncertainty of wondering. The best questions don’t have easy answers, and that’s the point.

For real curiosity-rich classrooms to develop, tasks should be relevant and meaningful for students, as well. Nothing hooks students in more than a problem they find worthy of being solved. Once a task or problem is presented, a great way to get students personally invested is to ask them to make estimates or predictions.

After identifying the question in Act 1, students should be encouraged to predict or estimate before gathering information to solve the problem. With natural curiosity, students want to know if their predictions are correct or how close they are. Capitalize on teachable moments when they are curious about their thinking by affirming reasoning or probing misconceptions.

Whether predicting the number of bugs on the tape or estimating how many miles between cities, predictions engage students, support knowledge-building, and encourage thinking about the reasonableness of their findings.

In addition to using estimation, you can foster curiosity by asking students to solve a problem in as many different ways as possible. This not only nurtures curiosity, but also reminds students that there are many ways to arrive at an answer to a given problem.

Curiosity is not a phase. It’s a lifelong disposition that fuels problem-solving, creativity, and engagement. As educator and author Zaretta Hammond states on equity and engagement, “What we know from the science of learning is that when human beings try to figure something out, the brain is fired with intellectual curiosity.” When we honor and cultivate students’ questions, not just their answers, we invite deeper learning and a more joyful classroom experience.