Becoming Curious ... again

Curiosity, Discovery, and Learning

Somewhere along the way, so many of us lose our curiosity. We become immune to the world around us because of its familiarity. We no longer feel the need to discover what is around the corner or try to understand why something works.
For the sake of argument, why does it matter if we lose our curiosity? Who does our lack of curiosity affect or harm? Possibly no one, possibly everyone.
Curiosity drives discovery and learning. A sense of curiosity has been shown to improve learning and effects areas in the brain where long-term memory is stored (Wade & Kidd, 2019).
I found curiosity to be an important part of my experience in Belize in June of 2019. Thinking back on the many adventures, those I remember the best and found the most exhilarating were those where my curiosity was piqued. Those times I immersed into the situation and wasn't bothered by my lack of knowledge, but instead to be thrilled by it.

Off the coast of Belize City

Spotting manatees at the confluence of the Belize River and the Caribbean Sea is the first stop on our adventure where  I noticed I was able to immerse myself into the experience. I wanted to learn all that I could about the Antillean manatee, Trichechus manatus manatus (ITIS, 2019), it's what role it plays in the environment and how the Antillean manatee are being affected by the myriad of changes to the earth. I wanted to spend all day looking at the manatee in the water and watching them to be able to know them even a little better. This curiosity has driven me to create a learning unit for the learners in my classroom to study biotic and abiotic interactions with the Antillean manatee as the focus species.

Emily and I with our home-stay host, Patricia.

As our trip continued, I felt myself letting go more and allowing myself to wonder and be amazed by what was happening.  Although it did not happen all the time, I found giving into my curiosity allowed me to relax and take in more information. My home-stay in Isabella Bank Village with Emily lead to a great amount of discovery. Our host taught us several of her go-to recipes, showed up how to make coconut oil from scratch and we tried many new foods. We had interesting conversations and found out much about the local culture. Our curiosity drove us to ask questions of our hosts and, I feel, allowed us to be slightly more at ease than might have been possible otherwise.

The final activity in Belize that illustrates how curiosity affected my experience is snorkeling off Tobacco Caye. When we first began snorkeling, I focused on what I might do incorrectly and worried a great deal about the possibility of something touching me in the water. In this way, I was creating a bad experience for myself and all I focused on was how I wanted to be out of the water. When I allowed myself to relax, look around and see what was around me the task became more joyful and the experience less stressful. I eventually allowed curiosity to take over and began to feel more at ease while snorkeling and I wanted to learn more about the ocean, ocean life and how it is being affected by global changes.

Photo taken by Liz Hoadley.

Reflecting on my experiences in Belize and on the course readings I feel that curiosity has been a large influence on what I have learned and whether I have wanted to further that knowledge. I'm working to use this knowledge and rediscovered sense of curiosity to fuel my teaching and further research into inquiry learning.

Children are natural scientists. They observe and they ask questions, they show innate curiosity (Ergul, Simsekli, Calis, Ozdilek, Gocmencelebi, & Sanli, 2011). My goal each day is to foster and develop the sense of curiosity in each learner who wanders into my path. To grow their confidence, their innate desire to discover new things and to become travelers in life rather than passengers.

Making outdoor observations with only their eyes.

Making outdoor observations using
magnifying lenses.

So far this school year, I have had the joy of listening to twenty 7 and 8-year-olds exclaim how amazing plants and insects look through a magnifying glass, pull faces of total disgust at agar plated filled with bacterial and mold growth after they tool swab samples from places in their school and laugh in delight as they use what they know about fore and motion to build and fly paper airplanes.  All seemingly simple activities, yet using the sparks of curiosity they are the crux of learning new and exciting information that will ignite further learning.

Through expanding of my use of science inquiry, it is my intent to further develop science skills and allow the learners in my classroom to have hands-on experiences in science along with other subjects which has the potential to increase science understanding and process skill at a greater rate than students who are taught through hands-on, inquiry-based science (Ergul, et al., 2011).

References:

Ergul, R., Simsekli, Y., Calis, S.,  Ozdilek, Z., Gocmencelebi, S.,  & Sanli, M. (2011, November The Effects of inquiry-based science teaching on elementary students' science process skills and science attitudes. Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy, 5, 48-68.

ITIS Report. (2019, October 10). Trichechus manatus; Linnaeus, 1758. Retrieved from https://www.itis.gov/.

Wade, S., Kidd, C. (2019, May 11). The role of prior knowledge and curiosity in learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26 (4), 1377-1387.