Peer reference

The activity:

After completion of the assigned experiment, the students are asked to work in pairs, and to compare their conclusions with their partner. A brief time (less than 5 min.) is used to interchange ideas, and then each student writes a short paragraph explaining their partner's conclusions.

By doing this simple exercise, the students will learn to respect other student ideas, and to properly cite peer contribution to their work. By being prompted to report on somebody else's conclusions, students become aware of other approaches to the same problem.

This activity is also important to prevent plagiarism, since the students learn that using ideas from different sources is appropriate as long as the sources are properly mentioned.

As a variation, students can be asked to rewrite their own conclusions in the light of the findings of other students. Suggestions for improving technique or percent yield can also be incorporated based on peer advice.