Strategies to Build Math Curiosity

A, B, & C. Strategies to Encourage Student Curiosity

Stimulating student curiosity is a vital component in mathematical education although it is seldom included in the curriculum. It is therefore up to the teachers to invent new strategies to entice their students and keep them curious and motivated. The No Child Left Behind mandate and the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics raised the bar for what math concepts teachers need to instill in their young students. While it is important to encourage all students to expand their mathematical boundaries, young students with lower-level computation skills, multicultural students, and students with exceptionalities may have additional difficulty remaining focused on curriculum. This could be in part because they have repeated the same curriculum more than once, have difficulty understanding certain math concepts, or function above the curriculum and are simply bored. In this paper I will identify four strategies a teacher could use to encourage elementary students’ curiosity in mathematics, explain the purpose of each strategy, and how the strategy could be applied in the classroom.

1. Who Wants to Play a Game?

Almost all children are interested and intrigued by playing games. If it is a game, it must not be work…..right? Teachers can incorporate complex math concepts into children’s games that will open a child’s understanding and give them a solid mathematical foundation on which to build. When children enjoy the activity that they are involved in, they tend to be more relaxed. This in turn creates a stress-free environment and children become more receptive to learning. Some concepts taught during the elementary years include numbers and counting, adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, graphs, money, and time. Using games to pique children’s curiosity about these concepts may open up their understanding for some of the more complex math.

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