1. Curiosity (Forms)

Curiosity:Ask questions!

Intellectual Character


1. Thinking about Curiosity...Your ideasChoose the image that you feel best represents or captures the essence of curiosity.

1. What’s going on in the picture?4

2. Why do you say this picture best represents or captures the essence of curiosity? Curiosity pertains to the mind, as such it is the essence of curiosity.

REFLECT: Are we curious?Visit kahoot.it and enter the Game PIN on the screen. After completing the quiz, answer the following:

1. What do you think prevents you from being more curious?Fear, lack of interest.

2. How do you think curiosity can be developed?Looking into things, finding different perspectives on things.

VIDEO: The ecstasy of Curiosity

I see:

I think:

I wonder:

2. Understanding curiosity...2

7.6.5. 8.

4.3.2.1.

https://goo.gl/Ne01kF

wonder

That is really interesting

How that would be possible.

When I was a child of about eleven, a new excitement suddenly flared up in my life …

This particular Sunday night was warm and twilit, and I fancy summer was nearly over. As we came to the end of the town, the sun had just gone down behind the river, and – I remember it as though it were yesterday – in the yellow sunset sky there was a sickle of new moon, and high over our heads a sprinkling of stars just coming dimly out. We stopped and looked.

My father said:

“I wonder if they’re what we think they are? Stars! Stars like this!” He waved vaguely. “People think we know about them. I wonder if we do.”

I gazed up at him.

“I wonder if we can,” he added.

I didn’t know what he was thinking. All of a sudden I felt that all the things around me were toys to handle and control, that I had the power in a tiny, easy world.

“I wonder if they are what we think they are,” my father was saying again.

“Let’s find out,” I said. And then: “I’m going to find out.”

My father looked puzzled. “Well,” he said.

The night had taken hold of me. I wanted to do something with those stars. I did not quite know what, but I was elated. Their beauty stirred me, but it was not only that. If I had been older, I should have said I wanted to know, to understand, to alter. I wanted to rush out and have them for my own. I laughed:

“I’m going to find out all about them.”

(Baehr, 2015)

Curiosity: Ask Questions

Definition: CuriosityCuriosity is a disposition to wonder, ponder and ask why. It involves a thirst for understanding and a desire to explore.

Stimulus: Arthur Miles from the search by c.P. SnowThe Search is a novel about the ups and downs of the career of Arthur Miles, a scientist at the University of Cambridge in England. The book begins with a description of some of Arthur’s first scientific thoughts and feelings. He is 11 at the time:

1. What happens in this story?

2. Describe the thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story.

3. In what way, if any, do you think emotions are related to curiosity?

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A child’s wonder and curiosity pertaining to the stars and their lumionescent beauty.

The child is fascinated, and the father has a deeper view on the matter pondering how much we really know about the stars

Emotions can dictate the extent of a person’s curiosity.


Research: Richard Feynman as an exemplar of curiosityResearch Richard Feynman and how he demonstrated the virtue of intellectual curiosity.Here are a few resources to help get you started:Article - http://goo.gl/nDgGc6Speech - http://goo.gl/h4z01u (delivered when awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965)Video -https://goo.gl/7BtVAf (10 mins)Video - https://goo.gl/psz8VN (2 mins)

1. Who was Richard Feynman?

Click here to insert answer.

2. What did he achieve in his career and life?


3. What did Feynman’s interaction with his father at age 11 teach him about knowledge?


4. How did his view of knowledge affect the way he pursued it?


5. In what ways did Feynman’s life and career provide examples of curiosity?


“Fall in love with some activity, and do it!... Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to

be, but what you want to do.”6. What part of this quote stands out to you as personally significant?


7. How could you benefit from following this advice in your studies and life?


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https://goo.gl/psz8VN

https://goo.gl/7BtVAf

http://goo.gl/h4z01u

http://goo.gl/nDgGc6


3. Valuing Curiosity…Article: Cats, take notice: Brain study uses trivia to look at how curiosity worksWhy are you reading this story? Probably no one is paying you or forcing you to read it against your will. Chances are, you are curious.

Curiosity, that thirst for information, is largely a scientific mystery. How and why it gets triggered is not entirely understood, but a study has discovered similarities in brain activation between a state of curiosity and the anticipation of rewards such as food or money.

In addition, it appears that being on a “curiosity high” can facilitate learning.

“Things that you’re interested in, you learn better, which is not very surprising,” said study author and psychologist Matthias Gruber of the University of California at Davis. “But if somebody remains curious for a specific time, would he learn better in general?”

The answer may be yes, according to his findings, which could have important implications for better teaching methods and understanding neurological disorders that affect learning and memory. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Neuron.

Participants were asked to rate trivia questions covering a variety of topics (including science, TV shows and politics) based on how curious they were to know the answers. Each individual then went into an MRI scanner where the questions appeared on screen. For example, “Who was the president of the U.S. when Uncle Sam first got a beard?”

There was an anticipation period of 14 seconds before the answer was given (“Abraham Lincoln”). While the subject waited for the answer, a photo of an unrelated face popped up. Gruber and his colleagues wanted to see whether being in a state of curiosity could help participants remember any material, such as the faces, not just the topics of interest.

Immediately afterward, participants were given pop quizzes. The first asked them to recall the answers to the trivia questions they had just seen — as expected, they did better on the highcuriosity questions. Next, participants were given a memoryrecognition test in which a face was shown and the subjects were asked whether they had seen it during the experiment.

“Faces that were presented during a highly curious state — those faces were remembered better,” said study author and neuroscientist Charan Ranganath at UCDavis. “That was really the most surprising part.”

Followup tests on trivia and faces the next day replicated this same trend. The observed memory benefits were supported by brain activity in the hippocampus, an area of the brain important for forming new memories.

Curiosity seems to place a stamp of importance on certain pieces of information that fly by, and the brain stores them away for safekeeping. But this link between curiosity and memory may even extend beyond the topics that people find fascinating, to any material processed while in a curious state of mind.

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The MRI results also showed that the 14secondlong anticipatory period — but not the answer itself — caused a spike of activity in brain areas linked to motivation, reward and dopamine release.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released by neurons in the midbrain in response to unexpected rewards. For rats, it might be a drop of sweet fruit juice. For humans, it could be money or a drug of choice. It has been called the pleasure chemical, but in reality dopamine is much more complex.

“Dopamine is released whenever you get news that you’re going to get a reward,” said Columbia University neuroscientist Jacqueline Gottlieb, who was not involved in the study. “It’s not actually getting the reward, but it’s the information that you’re going to get it — there’s a little burst of dopamine.”

During states of high curiosity, the researchers saw brain activation patterns that appear consistent with the release of dopamine.

“Curiosity is sort of like a cognitive reward, and these results seem to suggest that cognitive reward also activates dopamine,” said Gottlieb, whose work focuses on the origin of curiosity and what factors trigger it.

Gottlieb applauds the researchers for choosing to investigate such an everyday — but little understood — phenomenon.

“Curiosity is sort of a mysterious thing for us neuroscientists, and there haven’t been many studies on it,” she said.

Gottlieb’s main criticism was about the results of the facerecognition test, which struck her as a weaker aspect of the study. She speculates the memory boost could be explained by where the subjects happened to be looking at the time, not by a curious state of mind.

“I’m directing my attention to the center of the screen to see the answer, and then I see the face,” she said. “Even though the face is irrelevant, it appears in the locus of attention.”

Because many disorders — such as drug addiction, Parkinson’s disease, depression and schizophrenia — affect both memory and the reward circuit, these new findings represent a first step in better understanding their complex relationship. Ranganath’s future work will involve using electrical stimulation in the key brain regions to see whether it is possible to artificially create a curious state of mind.

For patients with these conditions, it “might be possible to improve memory through the development of medications or behavioral therapies to stimulate motivation and curiosity,” he said. (Kim, 2014)

1. What do you think is the main point of the article?


2. What was the major finding of the study conducted by Matthias Gruber?


3. Why did Jacqueline Gottlieb criticise some aspects of the research?


4. According to the article, why is curiosity valuable?

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Curiosity: Ask QuestionsClick here to insert answer.

Article: Want To Think Like A Genius? Embrace Curiosity And WonderIf we think back to our childhoods, we all started off with curiosity and wonder, with the ability to invent new things and extend the use of already-invented things with new functions in new arenas – remember how easily the sofa, with a little rearranging of cushions, became a pirate ship? This wonder, however, disappears quickly after the early years of life. Why is this? Perhaps we begin to prioritize other values over wonder. Maybe we learn how the world really works. Or maybe we are simply told to not wonder.Amazon’s Jeff Bezos attributes his extraordinary performance, in part, to the continual exploration of new ideas and new territories through a mindset of “childlike wonder.” What modern CEO wouldn’t love to follow his lead to take a company to similar heights?In a recent article in Cognition, Christopher Lucas and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh and the University of California, Berkeley offer one possibility for what changes our relationship with wonder: experience. Our knowledge and our expertise in navigating the world are determined by our experience, and as they point out, this is a double-edged sword. While our immense prior experience as adults allows us to more efficiently maneuver both familiar and novel situations, it can also be a detriment when a situation could benefit from a little childlike wonder. As we all know, many great ideas never leave the gate because someone says, “We’ve tried that before. That will never work.”In an experiment, Lucas and colleagues had two sets of participants come into the lab: college-aged adults and 5-year-old children. Already, some ideas come to mind about the types of tasks that children or adults are better at. Children, for example, are better at learning languages, learning to ski, and making friends. Adults, on the other hand, are better at things like math and reasoning. Right? Well, maybe.Lucas and colleagues’ experiment tested the child and adult participants’ ability to recognize two different types of patterns: conjunctive causal relationships and disjunctive causal relationships. In conjunctive causal relationships two (or more) events must take place to cause a resulting event. For example, in order to turn on a computer you must both plug in the computer and press the ‘on’ button. In disjunctive causal relationships, either one of two events must take place to cause the resulting event. For example, in order to shut down a computer, you can either click the physical ‘off’ button or go through a series of menus to shut the computer down.A natural inclination might be to think that the adults would perform better at recognizing and applying complex patterns – a reasoning task at its core. However, children did better. Adults, who most frequently come across disjunctive relationships outside of the lab, were biased to interpret both disjunctive and conjunctive relationships as being disjunctive. That is, adults approached most of the relationships with a solution resembling “push the ‘off’ button OR find the ‘shut down’ command,” even though half of the

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“You have to say, ‘Wait a second. Why are we doing it this way? Could it be better? Could it be different?’ That kind of curiosity, that explorer’s mind, that childlike wonder – that’s what makes an inventor.”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027713002540


items required an approach more similar to “plug in the computer AND press the ‘on’ button.” Children, on the other hand, were able to see the two types of relationships as distinct.In other words, the adults had an expectation about the way something should work, while the children did not have experience telling them how to solve the problem. The result is that children are far more inquisitive in their study of possible solutions. You could say kids are actually “problem-solving” while adults are “solution-retrieving.”Executives today face this challenge constantly. They want their businesses to grow and be known as truly innovative, but they are leading people who are informed and inhibited by their typically very useful brain patterns.This study is just one piece of evidence supporting the idea that prior experience does not always serve you. In fact, there are many case studies where childlike wonder, the innocence to reconsider the already-known world, is what ultimately led to extraordinary outcomes.Consider the way that we now consume media. It was unthinkable twenty years ago that we would want to read books on an electronic device, such as Amazon’s Kindle. As of January of this year approximately 28% of Americans alone use e-readers. To create this new reality, Bezos and his team needed to move into a completely new territory. They faced the absence of prior experience with this new product and possibly the history of other, failed innovations.Bezos has aptly noted that innovation requires experimentation, and with more experimentation comes more failure. The Genius of Bezos, however, is that he views failure as a productive part of the innovation process, rather than a detriment to the process. This relationship to failure may be the key to Bezos fostering the spirit of childlike wonder in his organization; perhaps in the world of wonder, failure as we define it doesn’t even exist.There is no denying the importance of balance when considering new ideas – in this case, using prior knowledge to inform decisions while not allowing this knowledge to limit future opportunities.However, for the most part, producing new results requires thinking in new ways. And new thinking comes when we suspend the experience that hampers our ability to be creative. Maintaining childlike wonder, and choosing to evaluate a new product, a new person, or a new venue with the curiosity befitting a child opens up the possibility for a break from the norm, and in turn, great innovation.You may be wondering how to foster a sense of childlike wonder in yourself and your organization. Perhaps as you read this, you imagined yourself bringing together some great minds from across your organization to look at an old issue or intractable challenge with a renewed sense of imagination, suspending any nay-saying or preconceived solutions. But who has the time? What about the resources necessary to deliver?We must consider that the companies we admire most for their innovative cultures and competitive edge are the ones that invest in their own childlike wonder. The question then becomes: How can you afford not to? (Gamache, 2014)

1. What do you think is the main point of the article?


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Curiosity: Ask Questions2. What was the major finding of the study conducted by Christopher Lucas?


3. How do you think experience can dull curiosity?


4. According to the article, why is curiosity valuable?


research article: The Hungry mind“Over the past century, academic performance has become the gatekeeper to institutions of higher

education, shaping career paths and individual life trajectories. Accordingly, much psychological research

has focused on identifying predictors of academic performance, with intelligence and effort emerging as

core determinants. In this article, we propose expanding on the traditional set of predictors by adding a

third agency: intellectual curiosity… Our results highlight that a “hungry mind” is a core determinant of

individual differences in academic achievement.” (von Stumm et al.,

2011)

1. What is the major finding of this research?


Reflect: The Value of curiosity1. Provide two reasons why curiosity is valuable to society.


2. Why is curiosity valuable to you?


3. How would being more curious help you as a student?


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4. Developing curiosity...Article: Seven ways to develop your curiosity1. Don’t label something as boring.This is the first thing you should do. Whenever you’re about to label something as boring, stop yourself. Why? Because doing that will close one more door of opportunities. What might seem boring at the surface may actually be interesting if you just dig a little bit deeper.

2. Expect things to be fun.Rather than expecting things to be boring, expect them to be fun. This small change in your mindset can make a big difference. Once you do it, it will be much easier for you to find the fun side of practically anything.

3. Absorb other people’s enthusiasm.Often something seems boring because it’s delivered poorly. That’s perhaps one thing that makes great teachers great: they can connect their students to the fun side of what they’re teaching. So one way to develop your curiosity is to watch the talks of those who are enthusiastic about their fields. Don’t just absorb their knowledge; absorb their energy too. One good place to start is TED.

4. Question relentlessly.Whenever you deal with a topic, have questions in your mind. Find their answers and raise new questions. Questions keep your mind engaged. They can change your learning process from something dull to a treasure hunt.

5. Create a challenge.By creating a challenge, you will want to prove to yourself (and perhaps to others) that you can make it. One good way to do that is by creating a project: build something real out of what you learn. Another way is to create a contest with your friends to find out who can do something faster or better.

6. Connect to what you already know.Things will be more exciting if you can connect what you’re learning to what you already know. Why? Because that improves your understanding of the world and allows you to see new possibilities you’ve never realized before.

7. Diversify.Avoid boredom and find new possibilities by exploring new topics. Read books in new genres. Meet people with different professions. Add variety to your life.

8. Your own strategy.Click to insert answer.

(Gladwell, 2008)

1. Choose two strategies and explain why you chose these two strategies in particular?


2. What are some practical ways that you can implement these strategies?


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http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2009/07/01/learn-new-skills-project-based-learning/

http://www.ted.com/talks


5. Practising Curiosity...

ACTIVITY 1: Curiosity in classChoose an activity/lesson that you typically dislike or find boring. The next time you are involved in this activity, do the following:1. Name the activity/lesson:


2. Approach the activity with a positive attitude, expecting it to be fun and interesting. It may help to remember instances when it has been fun or interesting before. Record one such instance below:Click here to insert answer.

3. It may also be helpful to have a ‘catch phrase’ or ‘trigger word’ to help you refocus when you start losing focus (e.g. FOCUS!).Your chosen word/phrase is: Click here to insert answer.

4. Listen attentively throughout the activity/lesson so that you can ask TWO questions. Record the two questions below:a. Click here to insert answer.

b. Click here to insert answer.

5. List TWO things that interest you during the lesson. a. Click here to insert answer.

b. Click here to insert answer.

6. After the lesson, indicate your level of agreement with the following statements by circling one number. Also enter this data into the Google form available at: https://goo.gl/gyyeCD.

StatementStrongl

y disagre

e1 2

Neutral /

undecided3 4

Strongly agree5

I found the activity/lesson more interesting than usual.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I found the activity/lesson more enjoyable than usual.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I was able to concentrate more than I usually am able.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I feel that I learned more than I expected during the activity/lesson. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐The answers to my questions helped me better understand. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐I now have further questions to explore after this ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

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https://goo.gl/gyyeCD

Curiosity: Ask Questionsactivity/lesson.

ACTIVITY 2: Curiosity and questionsPractise active curiosity and explore your current environment, paying attention to anything that you may

often ignore or take for granted, before proposing questions. To achieve this, follow the steps below:

a. Pick an everyday object or topic.

b. Brainstorm a list of questions about the object or topic using Padlet. Your teacher will set up one

Padlet for the entire class to use and display it on the interactive white board. Create one post

and write you topic/object as the heading and your questions underneath the heading (you can

insert a relevant picture if you so desire).

c. Pick your two most interesting questions and research them. As you are researching, try and

develop further questions. Record your questions, answers and further questions below:

Question:Click to insert answer.

Question:Click to insert answer.

Answer:Click to insert answer.

Answer:Click to insert answer.

Further questions:Click to insert answer.

Further questions:Click to insert answer.

d. Finally, using your initial questions from Part (b) above, look over the list and transform some of

the questions into questions that challenge the imagination. You can record these questions in

your original Padlet post. Do this by transforming questions along the lines of:

i. What would it be like if…

ii. How would it be different if…

iii. Suppose that...

iv. What would change if...

v. How would it look differently if…

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2.1.


ACTIVITY 3: Curiosity in lifeBe curious in your everyday life. For one whole week, record everything you do not know the answer to and

some questions you have in the space provided below. Once this is completed, research some of your most

interesting ideas to find answers during Home Group.

Things I do not know:Click to insert answer.

Questions I have:Click to insert answer.

Answers I found:Click to insert answer.

Having completed this activity, indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. Also complete the Google Form available at: https://goo.gl/JklVeD.

StatementStrongl

y disagre

e1 2

Neutral / undecide

d3 4

Strongly agree5

I was more attentive to everyday occurrences this week. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐I learned more this week than normal. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐It was difficult to think of questions. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐I knew everything I encountered this week. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐I found answers to my questions ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐I now have further questions to explore. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

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https://goo.gl/JklVeD


6. Connecting … Connect: Curiosity and the Christian worldviewThose who are intellectually curious earnestly want to know the truth, so they are always asking why. They

are not satisfied with the easy and simplistic answers, but have a desire to understand what makes it all

work—at the foundational level. For them, learning is not simply a necessary evil (the means of getting a

job and buying a house) but a lifelong quest full of mystery and joy. (Intellectual indifference is the

corresponding vice.) (Dow, 2013)

1. Create a list of various examples of curiosity. Then discuss

whether each is an example of virtuous intellectual

curiosity, the unhealthy sort of curiosity or could be in

either category depending on the circumstances. What are

the key differences between the positive and negative

types of curiosity?


Proverbs 2:1-151 My son, if you accept my words

and store up my commands within you,2 listening closely[a] to wisdom

and directing your heart to understanding;3 furthermore, if you call out to insightand lift your voice to understanding,

4 if you seek it like silverand search for it like hidden treasure,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lordand discover the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom;from His mouth come knowledge and

understanding.7 He stores up success[b] for the upright;

He is a shield for those who live with integrity8 so that He may guard the paths of justiceand protect the way of His loyal followers.9 Then you will understand righteousness,

justice,and integrity—every good path.

10 For wisdom will enter your mind,and knowledge will delight your heart.

11 Discretion will watch over you,and understanding will guard you,

12 rescuing you from the way of evil—from the one who says perverse things,

13 from those who abandon the right pathsto walk in ways of darkness,

14 from those who enjoy doing eviland celebrate perversion,

15 whose paths are crooked,and whose ways are devious.

2.Read Proverbs 2:1-15 and Acts 17:11, 16-34. In point form,

summarize the lessons of these passages concerning

intellectual curiosity. Discuss your summaries as a group.

How can we apply these lessons to our lives?


7. Evaluating … 15


Evaluate: Curiosity modulehttps://goo.gl/cm1kv6

Statement Strongly disagree

1 2

Neutral /

undecided3 4

Strongly agree5

I understand what curiosity is.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I want to be more curious.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I recognise the importance of being curious.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I have attempted to be more curious over the past few weeks.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I believe I have become more curious.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

I enjoyed this module on curiosity.☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

1. How have you demonstrated curiosity over the past few weeks at school?


2. What are some things you’ve found challenging or you want to change as a result of this module?


3. What were the strengths of this module on curiosity?


4. How could the module on curiosity be improved for next year?


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https://goo.gl/cm1kv6

Curiosity: Ask QuestionsReferences:BAEHR, J. 2015. Educating for Intellectual Virtues: An Introductory guide for college and university instructors.

Available from: https://jasonbaehr.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/e4iv_baehr.pdf.DOW, P. E. 2013. Virtuous Minds: Intellectual Character Development, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.GAMACHE, J. 2014. Want To Think Like A Genius? Embrace Curiosity and Wonder [Online]. Available:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gapinternational/2014/12/03/want-to-think-like-a-genius-embrace-curiosity-and-wonder/ [Accessed 8 December.

GLADWELL, M. 2008. In the Air. The New Yorker [Online]. Available: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/12/in-the-air [Accessed 8 December 2015].

IVA. 2015. Intellectual Virtues Academy [Online]. Long Beach. Available: http://www.ivalongbeach.org/ [Accessed 06/08/2015.

KIM, M. 2014. Cats, take notice: Brain study uses trivia to look at how curiosity works. The Washington Post, October 5, 2014.

VON STUMM, S., HELL, B. & CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, T. 2011. The Hungry Mind. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 574-588.

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http://www.ivalongbeach.org/

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/12/in-the-air

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gapinternational/2014/12/03/want-to-think-like-a-genius-embrace-curiosity-and-wonder/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gapinternational/2014/12/03/want-to-think-like-a-genius-embrace-curiosity-and-wonder/

https://jasonbaehr.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/e4iv_baehr.pdf

1. Curiosity (Forms)

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Transcript of 1. Curiosity (Forms)