2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This mixed-methods research paper investigates how classes and research experiences affect undergraduate engineering students’ curiosity. Students become curious when they recognize a gap in their knowledge and seek to resolve this uncertainty [1]. When students are curious about a topic, their learning better generalizes to new material and contexts [2]. Both the classroom and the research lab are spaces where students regularly encounter uncertainty and new information and are ideal contexts to examine student curiosity. In the current study, we examined how students’ experiences in classes and research labs may foster and/or suppress their curiosity. Twenty undergraduate engineering students completed a self-report survey of curiosity and responded to questions about how different instructional elements impacted their curiosity. Eleven of these students also participated in a semi-structured interview about their class and research experiences. Survey responses suggest that hands-on activities and labs were most likely to make students feel curious and exams were least likely. In the interviews, students expressed that they experienced curiosity when their instructors were engaging and made connections to real world applications, whereas they felt less curious when they were overscheduled and when class content was redundant. Students noted that working in a research lab gave them more time to process information, develop questions, and build relationships with peers and mentors compared to their class experiences. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer suggestions for encouraging students’ curiosity in both class and research lab settings.