Group Development and Peer Review
of Research Proposals - by Joanne Stewart
A General Description
With the recent emphasis on student-driven inquiry--where students are often responsible for designing experiments--it is important to consider ways to help students learn to recognize appropriate research questions and suitable experimental procedures. This activity has students working in groups to brainstorm, design and critique research proposals. I have used it in my analytical chemistry course of about 30 students, but I think it could be adapted to any setting where students are involved in developing a lab protocol.
The in-class small-group activity is part of a larger project where students actually carry out a research project in the lab. This part of the activity focuses on brainstorming possible research topics, thinking about the way to approach those questions experimentally and getting feedback from others on these early ideas.
To complete the whole activity there are lots of things that need to happen during the 50 minute class session so the tasks are pretty highly structured. First they need to generate a list of project ideas (or questions) that they can answer using the techniques we have learned about in class. Then they think about the way they would collect data and what they would do with that data once they have it. After choosing a single question they develop it a little further before sketching out their project for another group to respond to.
Tell me more about this activity:
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A general description
Some advice and reflections on this activity
Why I like this activity
Project description handout
In-class planning handout
Writing the proposal handout
More about Joanne Stewart
