  Students' curiosity often seems nearly nonexistent in a lecture setting; we
discuss a variety of possible reasons for this, but it is the instructor who
typically poses questions while only a few students, usually the better ones,
respond.
  As we have developed and implemented the use of InkSurvey to collect
real-time formative assessment, we have discovered that it can serve in an
unanticipated role: to promote curiosity in engineering physics undergraduates.
Curiosity often motivates creative, innovative people. To encourage such
curiosity, we solicit questions submitted real-time via InkSurvey and
pen-enabled mobile devices (Tablet PCs) in response to interactive simulations
(applets) run either before or in class. This provides students with practice
in asking questions, increases metacognition, and serves as a rich springboard
from which to introduce content and/or address misconceptions.
  We describe the procedure for measuring curiosity and results from applying
this method in a junior level electromagnetics engineering physics course. We
conclude that students are indeed more curious than they appear in class, and
students participate even without extrinsic motivation. This method of
enhancing curiosity using interactive simulations coupled with real-time
formative assessment in response to open-format questions could be implemented
in a wide variety of science and engineering courses as well as elsewhere.
