page reports detailing the content and elaborating on the familiar and the unfamiliar, along with any cther remarks commenting on the delivery of the material, are encouraged. These efforts are not graded, but the assignments are course requirements and costa letter grade if the assignment is unfulfilled. Outside (non-text) science reading. As part of the course readings, short essays or chapter selections from natural science collections are assigned to acquaint students with science writing. James Thurber’s “University Days” fits in well with the microscope lab. Isolated chapters from Roeche’s medical mystery series, “The Beetle of Aphrodite,” Lorenz’ “King Soloman’s Ring,” Quammen’s “Natu- ral Acts” column in Outside magazine, and Walt Whitman’s poems extend science to other worlds. Science as part of the community resources. To show abstract science in operation, classes have been given tours through local farms, seed research facilities, aquaculture laboratories, a university medical school, zoological gardens, exercise physiology centers, food technology plants, and medical laboratories. In addition, speakers from city services have given class presentations on chemicals in the environment, pollution hazards, and firefighting techniques. Students actively involved in their own laboratory set-up and design. Students need concrete hands-on experiences to make this esoteric subject real. To show that the materials are not mysterious potions or exotic substances, students are encouraged to weigh out and make up the laboratory solutions and to bring in the examined materials. Common everyday materials found in the home are preferred. For osmosis demonstrations, the students make sauerkraut and bring in naked eggs that have been deshelled in vinegar. Red cabbage solution or beet water made at home are used as indicators for pH changes. Students observe the effervescence created by the enzyme breakdown of hydrogen peroxide when it is mixed with liver, yeast, or blood; but they do not have the faith to accept that this gas is oxygen. Empower them to thrust glowing splints into the foam and watch them ignite. ~~ These are exercises which they take home and repeat for themselves or perform for their families. Since students know so little about living materials, they must collect their own snail, dig up plants to find root nodules, visit fields to bring back evidence of living things to examine under the dissecting microscopes, search for owl pellets, visit preserves with identified plants and animals. Students have brought in animal blood from veterinarians, insect and plant oddities, medical records, exotic pets, ostrich, emu, and hummingbird eggs, to name a few. 9. Seminar approach for interactive discussions. A relaxed round-table approach is used usually during the laboratory periods immediately before a holiday to relate findings from the news reports, readings, media programs reviewed, and science centers visited. These report sessions are viewed somewhat apprehensively at first, but they soon become intimate and vociferous family discussions. 10. Marketers of science learning. The best way to learn is to teach—so students are involved as docents in science open-houses to the community. Participants are invited and provided with materi- als to demonstrate a science activity to their children’s or sibling’s grade school classes. These include polymer formation in slime preparation, using household substances to illustrate chemical reactions, and playing with illusions. Non-major chemistry students put on a chemical Christmas show using demonstrations that they have found in library books (I suggest hunting through the children’s section). 11. No-fault learning: Ungraded writing and reports. Students have been conditioned by grades to produce the expected or to behave in an accepted manner. Eliminate grades for reports but comment generously in constructive ways to encourage them to explore different ways of thinking and generat- ing information and ideas. While these ungraded assignments reccive no letter reward, such assign- ments do serve as stimuli to encourage the science- leery and grade-conscious student to dare try other ways of thinking and of exploring different modes of expression. Students necd the security of being able to gracefully stumble in order to refine their performance. Instructors must combine expertise with sensitivity, be flexible in meeting changing needs, have un- bounded enthusiasm to infect students, yet hold attainable expectations. We must loosen barriers and invite more initiates into the culture of science. It enriches all of us. As science educators, this is both our mission and our role! Rita A. Hoots, Instructor, Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry For further information, contact the author at Yuba College, 41605 Gibson Road, Woodland, CA 95695. Suanne D. Roueche, Editor December 6, 1991, Vol. XIll, No. 30 SThe University of Texas at Austn, 1991 Further duplication is permitied by MEMBER nstitubons for ther own personnel. INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the Natonal Insttute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), Department of Educatonal Adminis traton, College of Education, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Auson, Austn, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545, Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundaton and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. ssued weekly when classes are in session dunng fall and spnng terms. ISSN 0199-106X.