Science is well known as a creative endeavour, with the generation of new ideas requiring inspiration and imaginative engagement. Activities that encourage divergent/imaginative thinking such as the creation of aesthetic/transformative materials can not only help students develop their own creativity, but also help them learn the content. Despite the well-known benefits of fostering creativity, students in the sciences rarely get the opportunity to develop or demonstrate this in assessment.

This case study describes an assessment initiative that explicitly encourages student groups to explore their creativity with the freedom to choose how they will demonstrate their knowledge of a particular course topic and embed two of the Griffith Graduate Attributes into a product/assessment item of their choice. Students further drive their assessment by developing their own unique marking criteria specific to their product with grading weighted heavily from peers (10%) compared to course teachers (5%). In this case study presentation Natalie Colson, Mary-Ann Shuker and Louise Maddock explore not only the “whys” but also the ‘hows’ to using the students as partners approach to meet specific course or program aims.

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