Inquiry Oriented Learning

Through IOL activities, students engage with scientific questions that have no predetermined answer, develop and implement approaches to address those questions, refine their approaches in order to enhance the quality of their data, gather evidence, and communicate explanations and conclusions based on that evidence. Les describes the diverse student-centred strategies he adopted to support the mainstreaming IOL activities in several science faculties across Australia.

In addition to delivering seminars and workshops nationally and internationally, Les worked directly with groups across Australia to redevelop their curricula in order to expose students to scientific inquiry through ‘hands-on’ activities. An important initiative saw the fellowship work with CSIRO in order to co-develop IOL activities for first year science students.