Course
Course overview
The INQUIRE training course at Kew uses the unique resources and expertise of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Teachers and educators will be able to recognise and develop inquiry based activities and resources that they can use in the classroom or on a visit to a ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ (LOtC) site such as a botanic garden, reserve, arboretum, environmental education centre or natural habitat.
Using the topics of Climate Change, the rich diversity of plants and the need for plant and habitat conservation, participants will be able to build their skills and expertise to deliver teaching on these topics to upper primary and lower secondary students.
There will be opportunities to see, plan new and implement a range of innovative activities with the support of Kew staff. A number of enrichment talks, tours, demonstrations and resources will be provided, along with access to excellent sources of further information. These will help build subject knowledge and enhance teaching.
BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The reasons for biodiversity loss and climate change are many and complex and not least due to the increasing demand for energy – the world’s population is set to rise from 6 billion now to possibly 10 billion people by the end of this century. With this demand for energy comes the release of greenhouse gasses. In February, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted "If we keep emitting greenhouse gases at current rates we will see bigger changes this century than we did in the previous century. The amount of warming will depend on choices human beings make". INQUIRE courses can support pupils to make choices that will mitigate climate change and take action for biodiversity.
Find out moreINQUIRY-BASED TECHNIQUES
Through using an inquiry-based approach pupils become the producers of ideas. They are encouraged to participate and become engaged with learning through collaborative learning activities, peer teaching, projects and classroom talk that require multiple levels of thinking. They create new ideas and materials through projects, usually talk aloud about the way they derived an answer and take the initiative to interact with teachers and peers. There’s no one way to do IBSE, it’s more about creating an environment where all participants – teachers and pupils – are co‐learners in the educational journey. Click below to find a variety of IBSE techniques.
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Final conference
The INQUIRE conference will be held on 9th and 10th July 2013 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Teachers and educators from 14 Partner countries will come together to discuss the findings of this three year project. Information on how to enrol in the conference will be announced in early 2013.
Find out moreBenefits for educators
Make your garden more relevant to teachers and students through providing them with real world experiences using IBSE techniques. Learn a variety of methods to assess your impact and become a reflective practitioner.
This course is going to transform my teaching!
Benefits for teachers
By participating on an INQUIRE course you will gain skills in IBSE teaching, motivate your students, increase the self-confidence of girls to study science, provide pupils with real world experiences, gain support from a leading scientific institution and gain access to a whole range of IBSE resources.
I found the activities on the first day of the course very stimulating
INQUIRE Partners
The INQUIRE course in the UK has been developed by the following organisation
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17/04/12 | Moscow
Carrots, dill, parsley and other kitchen-garden plants (testing of a computerized guide to the Umbelliferae family by INQUIRE course students)
What do these well known plants have in common, other than that man has learned how to use them and they grow in vegetable plots? We suggest discussing this question during lessons with students as part of the INQUIRE project as a way of introducing them to the diversity of Umbelliferae plants and their uses. We developed this lesson for the MSU Botanic Garden INQUIRE course in connection with the publication of a major reference book entitled “Umbelliferae of Russia” and a computerized guide containing information on all of the roughly 288 Umbelliferae species growing in Russia.
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Resources
View all resourcesGo to our resource section for plenty of ideas on how to teach IBSE. We’ve searched through many books, education packs and websites to find resources relevant for teaching in botanic gardens and other informal education settings.
INQUIRE NEWS See all news
15/05/12 | London
Club Of Rome Sees 2 Degree Celsius Rise In 40 Years
Rising carbon dioxide emissions will cause a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius by 2052 and a 2.8 degree rise by 2080, as governments and markets are unlikely to do enough against climate change, the Club of Rome think tank said. Failing to tackle climate change in the first half of this century will put the world on a dangerous track to warming in the second half, even though global population should peak in 2042 at 8.1 billion and economic growth will be much slower than expected in mature economies, the Switzerland-based body said in a report on 8th May.
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Case Studies
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