66 Journal of College Science Teaching Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is an

online tool being used to integrate a writing component in classrooms. In an introductory zoology lecture class, we found that CPR-assigned scores were significantly higher than instructor-assigned scores on two of three essay assignments. We also found that neither students ’ technical-writing skills nor their abilities to convey scientific un-derstanding of articles through summary essays improved during the semester. The CPR system offered fairly simple setup and submission for students and decreased grading time for instructors, so we offer suggestions on CPR settings and the best usage of this program. Calibrated Peer Review, or CPR, is an online tool for submis-sion and peer review of student essays. CPR was originally developed in 1998 to foster science literacy, constructivist learning, and critical thinking in introductory chemistry classrooms in California colleges and universities (Russell, Chapman, and Wegner 1998), but it has now been used by more than 525 educational institu-tions (The Regents of the University of California 2001) in many disciplines, class sizes, and levels of education. CPR’s widespread use is a testament to its flexibility. Instructors can create virtually any type of writing assign-ment in CPR, set word-count limits