In grade school, did you ever ask yourself 'when am I going to ever use or need this?' I know I have and did a few times in undergrad. One thing I enjoy doing is helping my students make connections of what we're learning to real life. I don't want my students to constantly ask themselves when am I going to ever need this or what's the purpose of learning this concept. To help minimize the chance of them asking that (although I know for sure they will some day), I create activities that allow them to associate the learning to something in the real world.