Collaborative Curiosity…. what is it? I’ve been thinking recently about what this might look like in our classrooms and have decided this might be one of the most important pieces our students are missing.

Imagine you have a question about a flower and you find the answer by googling it. You have the knowledge and you might share it with someone else, sometime. Collaborative curiosity includes a group of people looking at the same flower and building questions with each other. Those questions begin to happen organically, not just one mind, but many working together to build up the group curiosity.

Questions begin the journey, but collaboration can help bring the journey to a crossroads. Which way do you want to take?

We ask our students to ask questions, but there really isn’t any collaboration in that question asking. Questions are like a stream of water. They start small and can begin to grow where eventually that stream becomes a waterfall. That waterfall is now full of questions and those questions are bouncing all over the place. Collaborative curiosity helps out students to realize that one brain is not always the best, it’s the idea of groups working together that’s powerful.

I started working on our school’s vision statement for our journey towards a makerspace and STEAM framework and wanted this to be the first part of our statement. I truly believe that if we want to build agency in our students they need to realize that collaboration can lead to greater questioning. Collaborative curiosity can help build the ability to design, innovate, and wonder. Without collaboration I can still wonder, but to truly ideate and create solutions to problems, or even find problems, I can’t be the best at it unless I have collaborated with others.

This collaborative curiosity doesn’t just stay within our school walls, it can occur from twitter, instagram, facebook, google+ hangouts, anything that connects us to others around the world.

Imagine how minecraft works when we connect with others.

“I wonder how to use a pressure plate is individual question.”

Group wonder then becomes,  “I wonder how we can use a pressure plate to create a working rollercoaster?”

This cycle can go on and on and collaborative curiosity drives that passion for learning. I know that collaboration is a huge part of my learning and questions that others ask introduce me to new questions and paths that I take. Think about how collaborative curiosity can impact your learning and your student’s learning.

I truly believe that without collaborative curiosity we aren’t building students that can think and share their learning to the world.

It all depends on the questions we ask together. Individual wonders help to promote new learning amongst the group and group wonders help to promote individual learning.

Questions begin the journey, but collaboration can help bring the journey to a crossroads. Which way do you want to take?