Peer to Peer Instruction at DRSS

On Wednesday, 6th graders in Mr. Nelson's science class participated in usability tests conducted by 11th graders. This project began in Ms. Kancler's 11th grade chemistry class, where students were introduced to a water-displacement lab. They were tasked with creating quality procedures/instructions so that 6th graders at DRSS could replicate the experiment on their own, using only the instructions created by the 11th graders.

6th graders work through the lab with their 11th grade counterparts.

11th grader Kyleigh Lutz instructs 6th grade peers.

Peer to Peer Instruction is fun for both groups!

Everyone is engaged.

Water usability gets intense!

Billy Nelson helps 6th grade students set up their lab equipment.

In Ms. McDaniel's 11th grade Technical Reading & Writing the students analyzed examples of instructions and lab procedures and learned the criteria and rules for writing clear, understandable instructions for a specific audience.  They learned about their audience’s science vocabulary, drafted their instructions, tested them on their peers, and made necessary revisions for better usability. Finally, the students learned about different types of usability tests and were tasked with creating their own in order to test whether the 6th graders could successfully understand and use their instructions.  After conducting the tests yesterday, 11th graders will use the feedback to make final revisions to their instructions.

11th graders meet with their 6th grade counterparts to go through the lesson and ensure their audience would understand what they had written. This kind of peer to peer instruction provides an authentic audience for the 11th graders and gives our Middle School students a chance to interact with those in the High School.