On the first day of my Chemistry classes I hand my students an Introductory Information sheet. On it I ask them to name some things they hope to learn in the class. Typically I get few meaningful responses, likely because they hadn’t really thought about it before. More recently I have had them read the following article as their first homework assignment. After reading the article they are to write down chemistry-related questions they may have. I am amazed at the quality and quantity of responses I receive (see this semester’s list). As I read through the list I try to group the questions according to the chemistry topic to which it pertains. This way I can address the questions throughout the course, making chemistry more relevant to them.
Before using this article, I could have concluded that my students lacked curiosity about chemistry. But given time to think and some sample questions embedded in the article to stimulate ideas, my students’ curiosity was unleashed.