The Public Poster Session

Abstract

This note describes the use of a student poster session as an innovative approach to student learning. The local context for the assignment is provided, followed by a de scription of the course for which the poster was prepared, details about the assignment including its evaluation, and practical con siderations for planning a poster session. The pedagogical approach from which this assignment emerges is known as Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) (Newbrey and Balte zore 2006). The literature on IBL is well represented in science education in elemen tary and secondary school levels and secon darily in teacher education. Fewer reports exist on its adaptations to social science and humanities courses in universities. Most descriptions aimed at post-secondary use of IBL are published as guidelines by teaching support units or teaching focus groups at universities or professional associations. Perhaps the most valuable of these is a de scription of best practices produced by an interdisciplinary team at McMaster Univer sity in Hamilton, Ontario (Justice et al. 2007). Having originated in the university's medical science unit, the integration of IBL at McMaster has spread to the social sci