Simple Peer Techniques
- by Doug Duncan
Why I like this activity
Every time we do these challenges in the class, there are many different responses from the groups. By not immediately saying yes or no to any of the groups, by just encouraging students to comment on each other, I've actually found it's possible to get 100 students all actively participating -- small group/peer learning, as it's officially called, works very well and a lot of stuff goes on out of my earshot. I'm not lecturing -- instead I circulate around the big classroom, and I answer questions from the different groups.
The rule of thumb is if you've got your students active, they're debating, they're arguing, they're synthesizing ideas. They're very much more likely to retain that long term and be able to apply it to something outside of class. During this course, a remarkable 88% of the students changed their opinion of what science is. So I encourage you to try some of my experiments with your students. I encourage you even more to come up with your own "Challenges." Report them to me; then I can use them myself, and I can also spread them around to other people who teach astronomy and physics.
Click here to visit the American Astronomical Society education page.
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