In this lesson, students consider and analyze the longstanding peer review model, consider it the context of a movement to make science more open and collaborative and conduct an exercise in peer review and journal publication. Also in advance of class, browse the print or online Science Times, and clip or print copies of several different articles about new discoveries or advances in science, health and medicine (or math). Specific places to look in Science Times include the Observatory and Personal Health columns as well as the Well blog. In class, distribute the articles, one for each pair of students. Provide the class with the following prompts to discuss with their partners after they have read the articles: What is the main point of the article? Who made the discovery? Why do you think this development merited coverage in The New York Times? Do you think this information will one day be included in science textbooks and standard curriculum? How would that happen? How long might it take? After a few minutes, invite each pair to share the scientific advancement they read about and their responses to the questions. At this point, you may wish to explain or review the basic process of science and peer review, summarized in the peer review process flow chart> on the U.C. Berkeley Web site Understanding Science. Ensure they understand that scientists conduct research, write up their results in a scientific paper - a kind of highly detailed lab report - and then submit the paper to a science journal. Before a paper is published, a team of the scientist's colleagues review the paper for accuracy, insight and other attributes. Note that often, news coverage about science or medicine in mainstream publications like The New York Times accompanies the publishing of a prominent paper in a science journal. You might show students the New England Journal of Medicine's timeline of significant discoveries in medicine for more perspective on where some of today's medical information originated. After this brief discussion, ask the class to think critically about this model of peer review. What are the benefits to this model? What might be some pitfalls? Are there other ways to validate new discoveries? What might happen in the absence of peer review? Finally, tell students they will further explore the current model of peer review and will start by reading an article about a movement to make science more open, accessible and collaborative. Describe in your own words the process of peer review. What critiques have some researchers leveled at this process? What is "open science"? How does it differ from the traditional peer review model? What is ResearchGate, and how does it work? What are some of the costs cited by publishers of the scientific journals Science and Nature both cite the cost of publishing research as a reason why they won't provide free access to articles in their journals? What are some of the arguments for and against both peer review and open science? (Students doing science fair projects may bring in a report detailing their projects that includes an introduction and sections for methods, results, and conclusions. If they need to write up lab reports about their projects, they might use our Laboratory Experiment sheet [PDF].) Explain to the students that they will publish a student science journal using their own scientific research. To start the process and practice, they will act as peer reviewers and review one another's lab reports. Going forward, the best reports from the labs they do throughout the school year will be selected for inclusion in the journal, which will be published on a schedule as desired - perhaps once a quarter, semester or school year. To see what a scientific journal looks like, you might have students browse The National High School Journal of Science or The Journal of Young Investigators, a scientific journal written and peer reviewed by undergraduate students, or similar publications. Divide the class into groups of three, explaining that each group of three will review the same paper and decide whether to recommend its publication in the journal. To get started, collect each students" three lab report copies, then redistribute the papers among the groups, making sure that no student is reviewing his or her own paper; also provide each student with a copy of the existing lab report rubric, if you use one, or with the Peer Review Guidelines handout (PDF). Walk through the guidelines with the class, explaining that the guidelines provide a standard format for them to review one another's work. Explain that their role is to evaluate the paper and to provide constructive feedback to the paper's author. Now have the students do the following: Read through the checklist. Read through a classmate's lab report from start to finish, making notes in the margins if they have questions or comments. Fill in the Peer Review Guidelines sheet. When students have completed their individual reviews, have the groups discuss papers together, addressing each of the items in the Reviewer's Guidelines. In the end, each group should decide whether to recommend the paper be published in the journal. Reconvene as a class and discuss. Ask: Did each reviewer have the same comments and feedback? What kinds of comments did reviewers have in common? Were there similar mistakes across all the papers reviewed? Which paper or papers are recommended for publication? To wrap up, have students respond do the following prompts in their journals: What did it feel like to have your work anonymously reviewed by your peers? Do you think peer review would help make your papers stronger? Explain. Can you be sure the people reviewing your paper understand the science you are studying as well as you do? Is it possible that reviewers might misinterpret your paper, or might not catch mistakes? Do you think peer review is a process that your classroom could adapt for future assignments? Explain your thoughts. To extend the activity, you might invite other science teachers to act as reviewers as well, and compare their feedback with that provided by the students. Do students want to put their work online and share it with other scientists, in the spirit of open science? Or do they want to publish a traditional journal? Then, individually, students answer the Learning Network Student Opinion question Given Unlimited Resources, What Scientific or Medical Problem Would You Investigate?" - either by posting a comment on the blog or by writing in their journals. They then read the article "When Breakthroughs Begin at Home" and consider nonprofit and start-up lab and research spaces popping up in cities around the country, like TechShop and Genspace, as well as citizen science initiatives and collaborative science projects like Public Laboratory. When students are familiar with various "D.I.Y. science" initiatives, ask: If they were going to create an accessible scientific or medical research space, what equipment, tools and other resources would they want to provide? Would they want to cover scientific research broadly or focus on a certain area of study, like biotechnology? Where might such a facility be housed? How much would it cost? What risks and challenges would be involved? Have students work together to develop a proposal for a community science research space. Alternatively or additionally, the students can develop their ideas into science fair projects - in their school or as part of a larger initiative like the Intel Science Talent Search or the Google Science Fair. Science 11. Understands the nature of scientific knowledge. Understands the nature of scientific inquiry. Understands the scientific enterprise. Life Skills: Thinking and Reasoning 1. Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning. Understands and applies basic principles of hypothesis testing and scientific inquiry. Applies basic troubleshooting and problem-solving techniques. Applies decision-making techniques. Life Skills: Working With Others 1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills. Language Arts 4.