5 ways to create curiosity in the classroom
Critical thinking, engagement and explorative learning are essential in today’s classroom, and is just as relevant for primary school and high school as for higher education. Here we have collected a few activities we have learned from the teachers we speak to daily in Curipod. Big thanks to them!
Take a stand
In this activity, you as a teacher make a list of statements, e.g. “Every country should stop searching for more oil and gas”, or “Democracy is essential to have a great society” etc.
For every statement, the students get together in the middle of the classroom. One side of the classroom will be the “I agree”-side, while the other will be the “I disagree”-side. The students then have to choose which side of the room they want to go to, depending on their view on the statement. Everyone has to choose a side. Guaranteed engaged discussion!
Digitall escape room
Making a digital escape room is a super activity for students to explore, create and collaborate. This can be done in many ways, however OneNote and Genially are great tools for this. Here is a guide for how to do it in Genially
**What do I know, want to know, and what have I learned (KWL) **
When introducing a new topic, you can use Curipod for an engaging variation of the KWL technique
KWL means:
K - What do I know
W - What do I want to know
L - What have I learned
In the beginning of the class, ask the students to first write what they know in Curipod, and then write down the questions about what they want to know about the day’s topic. This makes the students aware of what they already know, and curious about what they would like to learn!
At the end of the class, run another round of Curipod where the students can answer what they learned in the class. Get started with Curipod here.
Let students make questions for a quiz.
This activity was inspired by two teachers at Elverum High School. Making great, relevant quizzes is difficult and time consuming. A perfect way to make a great quiz is to let the students ask the questions they have through Curipod. You will get tons of great questions, and students who are super motivated for the quiz. We recommend our friends at Kahoot for running the quiz itself :)
Think - Pair - Share
The Think-Pair-Share method is a method for facilitating discussion and dialogue where everyone gets to participate. It’s a proven technique to create engagement, and which suits most students great,
The Think-Pair-Share method, in short, means that the students first get to reflect around a topic individually, then together with a peer student as a “Pair”, and finally reflect and discuss with the whole group.