Making Discoveries with Provocation Tables

Put simply, provocations provoke! They provoke thoughts, discussions, questions, interests, creativity and ideas. They can also expand on a thought, project, idea and interest.
Provocations can come in many forms:

• An interesting photo, picture or book
• Nature (e.g. specimens)
• Conceptual (e.g. changing seasons, light)
• Old materials displayed in a new way
• An interest that a child or children have
• An object (e.g. magnets, maps)
• New creative mediums
• Questions (from any source – i.e. What is gravity?)
• An event (e.g. a presentation, a holiday)

Provocations can be as simple as a photo of a rock sculpture next to some pebbles or as elaborate as a table with an assortment of recycled materials next to a book on robots and resources to make upcycled robots. Often though, provocations are simple and displayed beautifully to provoke interest.