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As noted by Jose Vazquez in the abstract for his presentations at the 2017 CTREE and International Atlantic Economic Society titled The match that starts the fire! Curiosity, information gaps, and stimulating classroom engagement "one could argue curiosity is an essential requirement for any student to learn anything". He also noted that "before any student learns anything, he or she must WANT to learn it; and curiosity is at the center of this" (Vazquez). One of the issues that arises though is that many students in a Principles of Economics course do not have much of a foundation from which to build curiosity. This activity is designed for day 1 of an introductory principles of economics course to help create curiosity and relevance on the part of the students, while simultaneously reassuring those who may not have a foundation from which to build that curiosity and relevance that they will be able to succeed in the course.In this activity students are placed in teams and asked to put together a simple (24 or 48 piece) jigsaw puzzle. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle become a metaphor for the various components of economics they will be studying during the course of the semester. Putting the pieces together represents the idea that in economics, while the concepts and theories are learned in steps and it is important to have some core principles that must be understood (the edge pieces of the puzzle), the concepts are often interlocking and it can be hard to see the full picture until the puzzle is put together. Putting the puzzle together is then integrated with discussions of the questions that can be answered through economic theory. After the students put the puzzle together and the metaphor is explained, students are reassured that it is okay to not know anything yet - they might not have know who the character was on the puzzle or what the puzzle looked like when they started, but we will introduce all the important concepts by the end of the course. Simultaneously, by presenting some intriguing questions that economics helps to address, we begin developing curiosity about economics. Thus, the students understand that they have a lot to learn, but they are curious about how the concepts apply to them and want to learn more about them. Ultimately, wanting to learn more about the topics will encourage them to read the materials and explore beyond the textbook helping students start to bridge the gaps they may have in the concepts.

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