Intellectual Curiosity

QW: What is something you are curious about?

Intellectual curiosity is very important for academic success.  If you’re not at all interested in learning new stuff, it can be very difficult to do so.  Communication of what you know and/or what you’ve learned is also important.  So for this CSS activity, we will combine intellectual curiosity and communication skills.

First, watch this TED talk by Stephen Robinson:

Reflect: What, if anything, did you find helpful from this talk about how to learn a new skill?  If you did not find the talk useful, I'm sorry; come up with your own list of steps to learn something new.

Act: Now it's time to learn something new.  You have between now and when you next meet with your EF. 

Some ideas for what you might want to learn: How to juggle, how to knit socks, what it takes to play sports in college, a new sport or game, a magic trick, how to play an instrument, how to identify edible wild plants, or anything else you’re curious about and don’t already know how to do.

A note of caution before you start: This will be much more fun and interesting for you (and everybody else) if you really open your mind up to be curious – find something you really want to know about instead of just approaching this as another crazy assignment from Alana.

Here’s what to do:

1. Find something interesting to learn about.  Once you’ve picked a broad topic, you will research the topic and present a short (1-2 min) presentation on what you learned.  For your learning resources, you can use websites, books, videos, anything that is appropriate.
2. Document your progress on this progress.  At a minimum, include a summary of your topic, what resources you used to learn it, and some notes about your progress along the way (e.g. successes and failures, how you felt during the process, what new things you're curious about, etc.) Bring these notes with you to step 3:
3. Prepare a short 1-2 minute presentation to share this exciting knowledge with your EF and possibly others.  It will be helpful if you incorporate visual aids (actual objects, or a poster or Powerpoint).  You can video tape this presentation.
4. Write a reflection of the learning process.  This should be 1/2 to 1 page on what you learned, how you learned it, how you feel about having learned it, and if you plan on pursuing learning more about this topic.

Good luck!