Reply To: Year 9 FOSIL Inquiry Skills Project

[Chris Foster Participant]

Darryl, I’ve read through the F3 ISP posts and I’m very excited to read The Machine Stops! To me, this looks much more immediately relevant and accessible than the battlefields link.

It seems to me that these resources illustrate really clearly what FOSIL is all about.  I think another point I would like to emphasise is that they cut through the false dichotomy of skills vs knowledge. By treating the inquiry skills as a progression, and working on them throughout the school in meaningful activities such as these, our pupils are better equipped to select and use information to develop an understanding of concepts. They have access to what Michael Young calls ‘powerful knowledge’. What is more, they get to practice learning independently, skills which have been particularly important over the last few months of disrupted schooling.

It is obvious to me (from a student research point of view) that the skills the senior pupils need to cope with the demands of the IB Diploma Extended Essay, the Extended Project Qualification and other independent project work and coursework in the Sixth Form build up from the activities they meet in the Year 9 Inquiry Skills Project and earlier.