3 Ways to Spark Students’ Interest in New Science Content

Last week, I had to teach a lesson called “More About Waves.” The PowerPoint was solidly built, but with a title like that, it was never going to inspire curiosity—the students’ or my own.

So, I decided to try something different: I added a question at the start, but I didn’t tell students the answer. Instead, I let the solution unfold over the course of the lesson. I didn’t make any other changes; it was the same lesson I had planned to teach.

Starting with a question, even though it seemed like a simple idea, significantly improved my students’ focus. They were engaged throughout the lesson and eager to find out the answer. Plus, the next time I saw them, they remembered more from that lesson than most of our other ones.

CURIOSITY AS A TOOL FOR ENGAGEMENT

In my PhD research, I am looking at what makes students curious in class—and what can stop that from happening. Often, the quickest way to get a student to tune out is to tell them something they already know, or at least think they know. Once that happens, it can be difficult to reengage that student, even if they still have a lot to learn.

But you can combat this by finding ways to start your lessons with a moment of inquiry, sparking student curiosity and inviting them to think about the content in a new way. Not only can this create more engaging, enjoyable learning experiences for your students, but also it can make your lessons more fun to teach.

3 STRATEGIES TO SPARK CURIOSITY

Sparking student curiosity doesn’t mean you have to completely change how you create lessons. Instead, it can look like small additions that invite your students to think about content in a new way.

1. Hit the curiosity triggers. One of my favorite ways to tap into students’ curiosity is to challenge their intuition. I do this by sharing information that I think will surprise students about our content. For example, I recently taught a lesson about the rock cycle. When I’ve done these lessons before, I’ve struggled to generate much enthusiasm in my students.

This time, I did some research and discovered there are rocks that can “walk” across Death Valley. I started the lesson by showing students a picture of the trails left by the rocks and told my students that the rocks had walked across Death Valley.

Students were instantly interested and eager to tell me that I was wrong because rocks can’t walk. This small fact got my students thinking, talking, and ready to find out more.

As we moved through the lesson, I explained to students that water collects around the rocks and freezes, then the wind moves the thin ice sheets under the rocks. Students were pleased to learn that they were right, and the rocks weren’t really walking, but moving in a different way.

Where students may have otherwise been pretty disengaged by the content, starting with a surprising piece of information got them eager to learn more.

2. Delay closure. Another way I like to get students thinking is to pose a question at the start of a lesson, but not tell students the answer. Instead, we discover the answer together throughout the lesson. For example, during my lesson on sound, I put up a photo of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon and then asked students: “Why do they have to talk through radios and not just shout to each other like we would if we were outside?”

I then asked each student to write their answer on a mini-whiteboard and hold it up to show me. But where my students expected me to give them the answer, or call on a student to share, I just told them to keep their whiteboard predictions and that we would find out the answer during our lesson.

As class continued, students were invested in finding out if they had been correct in their predictions, looking for clues throughout the lesson. This led to much higher engagement than I’d seen during similar lessons in the past, since students were motivated to learn more.

3. Invite student questions. Finally, I like to start a new unit by tapping into students’ natural curiosity about the world around them. I give students three to five minutes to generate as many questions as possible about our new unit’s topic, and then I collect all their questions before we begin. I review their questions and then, throughout the unit, point out when we answer one of those questions.

For example, when I first began teaching one of my classes about the solar system, I asked them to come up with as many questions as they could. Some students had more background knowledge than others, leading to more complex questions, but I reminded students that all questions were welcome.

As we progressed through the unit, I told students when we were about to answer one of their questions, closing the curiosity loop as I presented the information. Students looked forward to having their questions answered, and they would even raise their hand to share out that they were the one who had asked the question.

While many questions were answered throughout the lesson, there were some that didn’t fit naturally into the unit. To ensure that these weren’t left unaddressed, I dedicated some time during the final lesson of the unit for a sweep of all the leftover questions—using their curiosity to investigate ideas about space and the universe more deeply.

Over time, I’ve seen the difference that sparking curiosity has made for how many students engage with our content. Plus, as I’ve worked to find ways to tap into what makes my students curious, I’ve also started to do the same for myself: I’ve tried to spend a little more time discovering new things about my content, and I’ve found that by doing this, I can much more easily bring lessons to life for my students.