There are many ways educators can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder. 1. Teachers should model and demonstrate how to get started! Teachers should think aloud and give students and insight into their own minds. 2. Teachers should create an environment that allows time for questions. As discussed earlier, teachers can also have an "I Wonder..." wall to encourage even more questioning. 3. Lastly, teachers should explicitly explain to students what the difference between an open-ended and closed question is. This will allow students to guide their own thoughts, questions, and observations. 2nd Grader & Bird Feeder

We can be catalysts by being excited when we are outside in nature and model how to observe and come up with observational questions. We can also ask open ended questions to encourage students to think deeply and make better observations. Students like answering questions, so we can have students come up with investigable questions and then try to answer the questions by doing an investigation.

The biggest way we can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder is through MODELING. In my opinion, when we model ourselves observing and wondering, our students will do the same. I think also asking questions and showing how answering questions leads to more questions also promotes observing and wondering in the classroom.

Keeping a journal can be a great way to develop observation skills and allow students to become curious and develop independent thinking and question making. Then over time the process of observing and asking questions can be refined as students gain experience in learning how to test their own questions.

Educators can be catalysts for students to observe and wonder by providing them with resources or opportunities for doing so. They help also help students develop questions from their wondering. Students can be guided towards observing and wondering through activities and prompts from the teacher. It is important that educators help students discover what they are interested in and use that interest to drive their wonder.

Giving the students opportunities to have the time to observe and wonder is key. So often time is what leads the lesson and the time to take things in is cut. Being in a position of not being in the classroom I feel gives me more flexibility to add in more opportunities for learners to have the time to observe and wonder.

First, we should model curiosity across disciplines by using "think aloud" (hmmm...I wonder why...), asking questions, and making observations.  Second, we can catalyze student curiosity by presenting interesting phenomena, exploring the natural world, and exposing students to local and global issues.

By taking students outdoors for a nature walk, they will have many unique opportunities to observe a variety of species and habitat characteristics that are sure to lead to observations and questions. This is a beneficial activity regardless of the grade that we teach.  Providing them with clipboards while walking will enable them to stop and write down any of their questions or observations at the moment they are occurring instead of waiting until they get back in the classroom. Their field notes can then be used to guide future individualized projects.

I've always been intimidated taking kids on a nature walk, cause I don't know the names of the stuff that we are seeing. But essentially that could be a benefit, because I will not just be giving the answer all the time! I can leave it open ended, and encourage the kids to search out their won answers to these questions.

You give them something worth observing. Jessifer mentioned that by just taking kids outside, they have a natural tendency to make observations. My ideas are taking my students (with sticky notes) on a walk through our nature preserve and asking open ended questions about the environment to get things going. Or taking them into our garden and doing the same. There is also a park we could visit. In any case, the great outdoors provides a feast for kids to abserve and wonder.

As an educator, it is our job to get students to wonder!  To notice what is going on around them.  To bring the joy and wonder of what is in our world so they can see it, touch it, explore it.  In a world when they are growing up with everything is just a click away....  to bring it forth and send it away... with just a click.   To give them the chance to sit and actually explore our world.  A chance to experience our world. I had a parent come up to me and thank me for introducing her child to bugs.  1st grader??  I didn't know what to say. What the mother was telling me was so foreign to anything that I know.  She said that her and her husband like to eat outside, but due to the 1st grader's response to bugs  they could not.  (screaming and running)  So, they did not eat outside??  The student did react to bugs adversely at first, but, she adjusted quickly to our program of insect observations.  She was right with the other students digging up the dirt and pushing over rocks, chasing down butterflies, and turning over leaves to find new insects.  My heart bleeds for this generation of students who are not able to experience the natural world.  It definitely is showing up in the students.  Hand them playdough, shaving cream or dirt and water to make mud and they hesitate about getting dirty.    I now have a selection of rubber boots and various types of clothes for students who fear the displeasure of their parents for not staying clean.  That way everyone is happy!

As educators I think we need to get away from the memorization of content, which I think is where inquiry comes in. Either taking the students outside to observe, or bring the outside inside. We also need to lead by example and explore our curiosity with them. The more excited and interested educators are about what they are doing, hopefully the more excited the students will be. I also think they need to be taught how to observe and ask questions. I really liked the "Lemon of a Lesson" from the previous section to get them started.

I think that setting time aside for students to purposely ask questions is really important. Part of this can be stating the learning objectives at the beginning of class which often can be phrased as questions. You can also review the essential questions that guide the topic. At the end of the class you give students time to write on the I wonder board. Often times students might come up with their own open ended questions. I have found it very difficult for students to understand open ended questions or even come up with their own. It might be more appropriate to first start off with more simple closed questions and slowly introduce them so that they can get more practice. Remember, learning to ask and answer open ended questions are part of higher order thinking skills, and just like any skill needs practice.

I believe as an educator we must instill in our students that we, the educators, never stop learning, observing. exploring and asking questions. We must let them know we don't know all of the answers to everything we do. We must say "I don't know, let's find out, or I will try to find the answer to that and get back to you". Even though we are knowledgeable in our topic area, that knowledge is very narrow or shallow in reality. I have a unit in which I place a can on my desk and give students slips paper to fill out, the can has a sign on it that says "You can ask questions". At the beginning of each class I grab questions out of the can and attempt to answer them.  Often I need to say I don't know the answer to that question but I will research it and get back to you tomorrow. I really like the idea of a "Wonder Board" to be placed where it can be up all year.  I believe this will help be a catalyst for our students to observe and wonder on their own.

Although sometimes we are low on time, I try to encourage students to share connections with the lesson we're covering and their personal experiences. Like Jen says in the video, open-ended questions also keep discussions moving where everyone feels they can contribute and there's no right or wrong answer or questions to ask. It's also important to set the students up for success by giving them the right tools and vocabulary to use. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when an adult "dumbs down" content for kids without giving them the opportunity to grow their vocabulary about their observations. For example, an adult might call a fawn a "baby deer" rather than what it is - a fawn. While it is important to use words with which kids are familiar, we must also bridge the gap of understanding to higher-level learning through the use of upper-level vocabulary. We can always define a word to help them understand the new word better, but I think sometimes adults just get lazy and want to hand the kids the answers without making the work challenging for the students.

As an environmental educator, I have to be unafraid to say "I don't know" as an answer to some students question. BUT, I  don't let the "I don't know" be the end of the discussion, rather as an opening for more questions and investigations. "I don't know but how do YOU think we cold find out?" I feel this empowers students to be critical thinkers.

One of the things I find is that we are so busy during the school day, we do not allow time for wonderings to occur.  As an outdoor educator at a school my time with kids outside was often limited by the other specials kids had to go to, other classes, etc.  One thing I did with a sixth grade teacher was plan to take kids outside to a wooded area on our grounds at least a few times per month for most of the school year.  Small teams of students were given a meter square to record data and observations.  The team used the same area every time they went out.  The kids recorded certain data every time they went out and then made observations and wrote down questions they had.  Several teams turned their questions into science experiments they displayed at our annual STEAM night at the school.  It was just a matter of giving kids the time and the framework to wonder.....

One of the ways to help guide students to observe and wonder is by allowing them the opportunity to see new things and places. When they are surrounded by the unfamiliar, naturally questions and wonder arise. We can also ask open ended questions which might lead them to seeking answers but also might encourage them to ask questions about other things. I think the best way is just by modeling that even teachers don't know everything and we have our own questions about things. This type of modeling makes it more comfortable for students to ask questions as well. Sometimes its best not to give students the answers but to encourage them to solve problems on their own. Another way to encourage wonder and observations is by having them come up with their own questions by giving them options of ways to observe. For example, we have two game cameras, where should we put them? Then the students can start thinking about questions they want to answer using the game cameras.

Asking open ended questions creates students to think about other ways to observe and to look at not just the subject but also the environment they are in.

Posing those open ended questions is really essential. Modeling how to observe and ask questions is important, and then showing lots of enthusiasm is ideal for getting students interested and into observing and questioning. Allowing students choices and what interests them is important too.

Showing that you are curious (and don't already know everything!), enthusiastic and interested in topics you are teaching is crucial to students also being engaged. As is showing that students' knowledge and questions are important and valued too, by letting them be the drivers of their learning and inquiry. As talked about in the video, modelling asking open-ended questions is a good place to start.

I think it's important to take a risk and try something new.  I am sponsoring a club and I would like to try nature journaling.  I have no experience doing this but I think being volnerable and open with students---modeling that I am curious and willing to learn and try new things will help them do the same.  I also love hearing the different perspectives and insights students have and highlighting these. I enjoy having open-ended questions and allowing the questions to linger without answers.  This, in my mind prompts curiosity and shows students that getting answers quickly isn't the name of the game but is a part of learning and being oopen to possibilities outside of one's perspective or experience.

As suggested in the video, it is important to ask students open-ended questions and to also model this behavior with students, but it's also critical to set up a welcoming climate for questions. A colleague of mine often begins her classes by showing a diagram or lab demo.  She then calls on students asking their questions about what they saw. Consequently, students in her class become comfortable asking questions and contributing in class. I think it is important to set a climate where students do feel comfortable asking questions and they know they will be respected. Once that climate is in place, more of focus can be put on open ended questions that are derived from observations students make.

I provide students with "stem questions" in which only the first half of the question is present and the student must then complete the question to determine what he/she wants to know. Some students have not asked any questions for quite some time because they have been force fed information their entire education. Once the student understands how questions are to be written for a good scientific exeriment can answer them I allow the students to provide me questions throughout each topic either he/she wants to answer or provides the questions to other students for them to answer.