Welcome to the Homepage of ASELL (Advancing Science and Engineering through Laboratory Learning). As our name implies the ‘Lab’ is at the core of the ASELL approach. It is our belief that the lessons that students teach themselves, through open-inquiry and hands-on experiences, are kept for life. These experiences help to shape students into ‘science thinkers’ who not only retain the facts of a science lesson but the scientific reasoning skills that lead them to their understanding.
There are two main streams of ASELL: ASELL Schools and ASELL Universities.
ASELL Schools is the most recent incarnation of the approach and focuses on science education at the High School level. ASELL Schools has been a proud partner of the Australian Maths and Science Partnership Program (AMSPP) since 2014. The AMSPP is a government initiative that engaged many universities and institutions in programs designed to improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education across the country. As part of this project, ASELL Schools ran workshops based in high schools for both students and teachers – see the About ASELL Schools page for more details.
ASELL Universities is the original version of the ASELL approach. ASELL Universities began in 2009 and started in the First Year Chemistry Labs of The University of Sydney. The approach was honed through consultation with a wide range of experienced academics and quickly spread to other disciplines and institutions. Today, the ASELL approach is practised in Physics, Biology, and Chemistry laboratories in universities across the country – see the About ASELL Universities page for more details.