Peer Mentor Program

In the IBIS program, we utilize students as Peer Mentors (PMs). We prefer the term Peer Mentor (as opposed to Teaching Assistant), because we believe that students can play an integral role in the instruction and mentoring of fellow students in introductory biology. Depending on the institution, PMs can be undergraduate students, graduate students, or both. We have used PMs in a variety of ways, including helping to facilitate activities in the classroom, providing instruction on laboratory investigations, assessing student work, and being available in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) to provide students with help outside of normal class/lab times. Additionally, being a PM in an inquiry based classroom provides these students opportunities to solidify biology content and develop a foundation in scientific research. We remember 95% of what we teach therefore providing PMs with the chance to teach other students methods of scientific inquiry can increase their knowledge and self-efficacy.