Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) puts the student at the centre of learning, rather than the teacher. Within IBSE activities, there is an emphasis on active learning. Students are faced with big questions or problems, and real-life situations.
IBSE projects show students that there is more to science than learning facts. Students get the chance to use their prior knowledge and ideas and learn about a new topic. Not every student will develop the same knowledge and skills from an IBSE activity. The outcome depends on how invested the student is in the topic and the activity.
There are various levels of enquiry. The level depends on how structured or open the activities are. Star Clusters and Supernovae are structured IBSE projects. In these projects, students are given outlines of the methods to follow and questions to answer. Exoplanets is an open IBSE project. Students come up with their own research questions and methods.
In all our projects, students explore the activity in the order they prefer. They collect data and look for patterns. They connect their evidence to the knowledge they have gained during the activity. They come to reasoned conclusions and justify them. They do not know what the result should be.