Mapping student learning throughout the collaborative inquiry process: the progressive e-poster

21st century research approaches in the biological sciences continue to progress at an ever-increasing pace. Advances in computer technologies have resulted in exponential increases in the rate at which biological data are collected, accumulated, disseminated and applied. Biology education has remained predominantly content-centric, focused on prescribed activities with little autonomy, and pedagogies have remained stagnant in comparison to the implications of research outcomes (National Research Council 2003; Handelsman, Ebert-May, Beichner, Bruns, Chang, DeHaan, Gentile, Lauffer, Stewart, Tilghman, and Wood 2004). There is a critical need for evidence-based reform to align the link between current research and pedagogical practice. This project addresses this need through the creation of collaborative learning communities from a crucial starting point: ‘thinking about thinking’, i.e., the enhancement of learning through individual and group reflection and analysis of the scientific inquiry process.