In this article we show how student “open inquiries” in undergraduate labs can be powerful teaching and assessment methods. In such open inquiries it is the students who define the question they want to answer, formulate the hypothesis, search for information, design and carry out experiments to reach their goal, and share their ideas, needs, and results with others. This student agency afforded by open inquiry trains critical thinking, teaches students to learn from failure, and requires effective science communication in authentic contexts.

Adapting open inquiry methods for the first time can be especially daunting for instructors who have no examples to draw upon. To address this challenge we explain the findings of a diverse group of five lab instructors and an educational researcher who have compared open inquiry practices in different contexts. As a group, we formed a Community of Practice dedicated to “Supporting students’ scientific Open Inquiries in Labs” (aka SssOIL). The commonalities across our diverse project team suggest some defining features and best practices. By sharing our findings and example course designs and materials, we hope to aid instructors in adapting more open inquiry teaching methods in their own lab courses.

Any questions about this article can be addressed to Forrest via: forrestbradbury@gmail.com or to our team via: S3OIL@outlook.com