  'Cookbook' style laboratory tasks have long been criticised for the lack of
critical and independent thought that students need in order to complete them.
We present an account of how we transformed a 'cookbook' lab to a genuine
inquiry experiment in first year physics. Crucial features of the work were
visits to see other teaching laboratories, understanding student preparedness
and the selection of an appropriate experiment to develop. The new two session
laboratory work is structured so students make decisions related to the method
of a basic experiment in the first session and then have freedom to investigate
any aspect they wish to in the second. Formative feedback on laboratory
notebook keeping is provided by short online activities.
