Exploring bio-based materials in an interdisciplinary learning environment: Outlining the design inquiry cycle

This article focuses on a higher education learning environment that combines
expertise in design and chemical engineering in the field of bio-based materials and in a framework of inquiry-based learning (IBL). During two summer schools, students framed their own small material projects in which they practised constraining the design task from a new perspective, with pedagogical support. In this study, we qualitatively analysed design students’ inquiry processes from their project reports. Based on this, we outlined a general five-phase inquiry process that followed three aims of the pedagogical framework. In the results section, we explain the process phases, using illustrative examples from the student’ reports and concretely highlighting the nature of learning. We conclude that our illustration of the general phases of inquiry provides an analytical tool for conceptualising the learning process and further developing and studying this context.