While leading hikes, I regularly incorporate at least one sensory awareness activity at some point during our outing, no matter the ages of the people with me. This may be a listening exercise or a 'count how many colors you can see from where you are standing/sitting'. Discussion about everyone's observations often lead to participants being curious about what they have seen or heard, and to many questions being asked. I often refer people to reference sources that might help them answer closed questions, and prompt them to think about how they might investigate open-ended questions. At times I pose open-ended questions myself. There are participants who have attended subsequent outings and related how they went about finding out answers as well - always a treat.

Strategies and tools that I think are helpful to encourage curiosity and questions are as follows:

Our program is 100% outdoors and we allow students around 1.5 hrs (out of our 4 hr day) to explore on their own, we call this exploratory play. During this time students explore and interact with the natural world on their own without the educator guiding time. This allows students to support their natural curiosity, to discover, and to explore without barriers. They use all their available senses and their observations to try to figure out the world. We have found that this really helps students with their curiosity and their questions. We have found that students will approach the educators during this time to show us their nature finds, tell us about something they saw or did, etc. We then incorporate these experiences into our lessons. Sometimes we get a bit derailed from our scheduled topic for the day, but that is totally okay because we often end up having a deeper experience. Another key component of our program is that we begin each class with nature journaling. Students are able to journal about anything they wish though we do give them guidance on the types of things they should include in their journals on our first day. One of the things we encourage them to do is write down questions they have about their observations. During lessons, we encourage curiosity and questions by starting with, KWL charts - What I know, what I want to know, what I learned, or I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of. These prompts help students begin to think about our topic and guide them in asking questions.

I have a table in my classroom where I put out items that I find interesting, such as:  shells, interesting seed pods, rocks, starfish, pictures, etc.  I also add new items to the table as I find them.  Often when I add new items, I will share them with the class and talk about how my curiosity prompted me to pick up the item and add it to the table.  I might also model what questions I have about the items.  As the year progresses, students also begin to bring in items to add to our table; they often want to stand up in front of the class and show their items (and of course, pass it around for everyone to observe or touch).  They might share what about the items peaked their curiosity or background knowledge they have about the item, for example, two years ago, a student found some cow teeth in the field.  He brought them in and shared them with the class.  As students observed the teeth, they (and I) of course had some questions about the teeth.  My main concern was about where the teeth had come from; I thought perhaps I was touching teeth that had come from a dead cow and that raised concerns about how the cow died.  My student, and later his father, explained to me and the class that cows will often lose teeth just like humans.  Without that table, I might never had found this out.  I would love to use the idea of I Wonder boards to encourage deeper observational and experimental questions with this idea of collecting items that catch our natural curiosity and cause us to wonder.  Before the items were merely for a quick activity that allowed my students and myself to share those "cool" things we found in the natural world.  Now I think it would be even better to make these things a part of our actual Science lessons.  We could choose to really observe some of these items and create experimental questions which we would hopefully be able to test out in our classroom.

Most of what I do is just a single lesson or program with a group, so I don't have the ability to see these children multiple times and explore things via experiments in the classroom. I can, however, inspire deeper questions while in nature and come up with ways to encourage participants to investigate and experiment further at home or at a future visit to our Preserve with family.

• To encourage curiosity and questions, I take students outside as much as possible. Having a journal and plenty of time are also helpful. School gardens as an informal learning setting is very conducive to this.
• I still have a lot to improve on my skills to inspire deeper observational and experimental questions. So far, I often avoid giving them the answers, but asking further questions to their questions instead. Some students find this uncomfortable at first, but with the encouragement, they do respond to this kind of approach eventually. Another way is simply asking students to pose questions about something we come across in the garden.

When we have discussions about certain things, I like to answer students questions with my own questions, to have them think deeper about what they are wondering. "What do you think?" "How can we figure that out?" "Great observation! Does anyone else have thoughts on that?" Giving students plenty of time to observe and discover will naturally bring up questions and/or discussions that we can explore together. Writing down questions as they arise gives us something to look back at and discuss as we make plans to further explore a topic. Making sure students have tools to observe such as rulers and magnifying glasses helps them in their documentation and makes their experience stick. Then we can form some good questions, learn together, and make a plan for further projects.

Many of the classes I lead start with a group discussion determing who a scientist is, what do scientists do, and what tools do scientist use. Starting this way allows us to chat about the different fields of science and review that scientist ask questions, learn, and make new discoveries. This sets the stage for our outdoor explorations. When asked reference questions, I typically respond with a question, encouraging the student to slow down and think. Demonstrating curiosity and wonder is key so I get really excited when we spot animals. We also review how to move if we want to discover animals, so I purposely slow them down, quiet the group, and explain that sometimes we have to go into 'bobcat' mode if we want to see animals. This strategy also allows us to review trophic levels and keeps the students thinking about how animals respond in the wild. When we spot something we'll gather and ask questions to expand learning and hone our observation skills. Making curiosity and discovery a full body experience helps keeps my groups engaged and always on the ready for a new chance to learn! I rarely get the chance to have a group for more than a day as we run a lot of school trips, so my role is to model how to observe and get excited. I can't wait to incorporate what I'm learning in this course but that might be down the road for day camps next summer.

I like to take students outside a lot to do nature journaling.  I always struggle to find time to regularly discuss what we found and to encourage questioning like this.  I usually am good about it at the beginning of the year, but as the demands roll on throughout the year, I tend to do it less and less. We also have a "specimens table," where students bring in interesting things they've found out in nature-feathers, sticks, rocks, leaves, honeycomb...  That's always a favorite place to go and explore, a way of bringing nature into our class.  A lot of interesting questions begin at that table.  I want to work on being more purposeful in drawing out these types of questions with students this year.

I work mostly with 15 - 18 year olds, so I like to start off with hooks or sparks that are one or more of these kinds of activities (depending on what is more appropriate for the topic):

• a prop related to the topic; something relatable or unusual doesn't seem to matter, they all get a good series of question-building happening
• controversial headlines from local/global news or magazine articles
• story time! : read a story out loud (high school students miss that from their primary school days!)
• field trip (in a different part of our campus or completely off-campus)
• graphic/visual prompts: photo/photo exhibitions, videos, 360-degree VR video experiences
• meeting/hearing from someone who 'lives and breathes' the topic

In addition to many of the great prompts others have mentioned below about making observations and questioning, I also ask students to consider what information may be missing and why they may not be able to find the answer just yet (or what would they need to try to find out?).

One of the single most important things I give my students to encourage their curiosity and questioning is a place and space to be curious and question. I invite students to explore and think on their own beyond the classroom by modeling what it looks, sounds, and feels like to be curious and wonder. I show them how to use science notebooks to write down and collect wonderings just like collecting seed ideas to write about in a writing workshop. I encourage students to carry a notebook around when they are not in school because wonderings happen anywhere. I model this by having my own notebook of wonderings and my enthusiasm in keeping it comes across when I share entries with my students. The notebooks are a great place to not only record questions and observations but also a place to sketch and draw what you see and think. I have found that doing actual drawing and sketching along with labels and captions can lead to observations and questions of more substantial quality and focus. I encourage my students to do such work in their notebooks with the use of various colored pens, markers, and pencils as well as post it notes.

I like to use phenomenon to foster students curiosity. This is simply put " an observable event". Usually there is no explanation given beforehand. So student discovery and interest is maximized.  It is sometimes as simple as a picture, or a gall on a twig, or leaves from a mint plant and the fact that students will, given time, smell them. All of these simple things presented to students can spark questions and lead to deeper investigations. I love to use a KWL  ( What I know, Want to know, Learned) chart that we can add to as the lessons progress. This helps students to recognize they have knowledge and questions that they want answered and it helps students know that they have expanded their own learning.  The trick is that this chart has to be a living document that is reference to daily and questions can be added to and expanded upon.

I will begin every new unit with a question and an activity to spark interest in the unit.  I try not to give step by step instructions or procedures and rather allow it to a time of discovery.  As the unit progresses, I start the new lesson off by review and questioning previously acquired knowledge.  This gives me an insight into what my students know and which ones need more time.  I often do a "What Do You Think? segment where I have students think about topic and then write why it may occur.  This allows students to think outside the box and predict.  However, I believe I can do more.  I want my students to do more daily observation themselves, collect data and report their findings.  I want to try new lessons where my students really see themselves as scientists.

We have a nature journal that we take when we are outside exploring/looking for birds/wildlife. In that book there is a few blank I wonder pages for them to jot down their "I Wonders" while we are out and reflect upon them in the classroom or during sharing circle. We could do an exercise where we take all of our research questions and see if we can make observational experimental ones from them.

Before a science unit or project begins I like to provide a "Hook" activity to get my kids excited about the new topic of study!  These hook activities that my colleagues and I created are meant to spark the student's curiosity and to get them asking questions about what they see.  For example before we teach our Plant Parts and Survival unit we show them a PowerPoint slide show of some really crazy looking trees.  Some are growing sideways, some have huge roots that are growing above the ground, and some trunks have twisted around other trees.  The minute they see these pictures they start talking to their classmates.  Usually someone shouts out "How did it get like that?"  Since many children have never seen trees like these (myself included) they have lots of questions.  Getting young children to share observational and experimental questions requires modeling.  My job is to help them reframe their question or guide their question so it becomes observational or experimental. After the "Hook" activity we can take it to the next step by making observations about the trees and plants around us at school.  Students could then formulate questions to be placed on the I Wonder board about the nature they see around them.

I begin by asking questions in class.  I usually have a few students in class who are inquisitive by nature so that they will naturally respond by asking questions.  This will lead to other students asking questions.  This will generate discussion and deeper thought on the subject. I make sure that the questions I am asking are open-ended questions that will lead to further discussion with the students.  I have experienced asking closed-ended questions and know how that brings discussion to an abrupt end.  I must work to get discussion and questions back on track if this happens.

I think that one important way to encourage curiosity and questions is to begin with open ended questions, and give students the opportunity to explore them before adding the research component. For example, when we talked about what makes snow white, students came up with answers like, "it comes from the moon." I think deeper observational and experimental questions come from repeated practice and modelling. It also comes from building background and content knowledge. I also think field trips and getting kids outside and out of the classroom is an important way to encourage curiosity!

Many times just helping them relate to the topic is enough to get them inspired- we have found that having them -be- the animal we have questions about helps. For instance  if we are discussing an opossum we might tell them "you have a long, hairless tail, what might you use that for?' It seems to connect them with the animal & encourages more questions that we could then turn into an observational study depending on the questions posed.

Introduce new experiences to children by placing novel objects in the environment. Let them explore before they begin to record their experiences and observations. The teacher should be the observer and make notes as they explore. Give a generalized prompt after a bit, such as, notice something new. Have them categorize their wonderings into "How do I find out? " groupings.

One way I like to encourage curiousity in younger students is by using "centres" or "stations" with different objects that can be found outside. This way, they can touch, feel, and smell various natural objects and formulate their own questions about what they encountered without specific prompts from the teacher. For older students, I like to take them outside and ask them what they have questions about and see if there are anything that can be explored deeper or even lead to an experiment.

I find a walk outdoors with the preface of " Let's see if we see anything new" as a good way to encourage curiosity. Deeper observations and questions can often be encouraged by asking the group to slow down and journal. If I can use some self-control, and not give all the answers to those reference questions, a deeper look at those observational and experimental questions can transpire. I do like to ask the group as a whole a brainstorming question and try to create a culture of listening and accepting. Sometimes young students, especially those I see that do not spend every day together as they would in a traditional setting, need to be reminded of the strengths we each have and taught the skills a scientist uses each day. Developing questions, that are testable, is a skill every young scientist can practice- especially outdoors!

I think the primary way to support youth curiosity and questioning is helping them see themselves as scientists to begin with. Many students have this idea in their minds about what a scientist is or what a scientist usually does. Unfortunately, that mental image is usually not of themselves although it certainly can be since we are all scientists in some regard with our innate ability to inquire and better understand the world around us. Students are always looking for the "right answer" so I always encourage them by saying there is always an answer, maybe you just haven't asked the right question(s)! They drives them crazy but they know that I am not going to give them the answer(s). It puts them in a position to brainstorm, think, collaborate, and communicate with their peers to dig deeper and keep exploring. And in some instances, students need to be comfortable with not knowing the answer or having an answer based on the best available data. That usually leads to a discussion about laws vs. theories vs. hypotheses, etc.

I sometimes answer a question with another question to guide kids through the critical thinking process. Group brainstorming is a good way to get kids to think about all the possibilities. We will also be going outside often to practice seeing and hearing things in more detail.

Team reflections. Promoting conversation about a topic in the classroom among the students themselves. While my role is to intervene to the minimum, just hovering around them to have them register their ideas and support them when they get stuck in the process.