ABSTRACT
Make independent study a requirement for all students as Laura does in math wherein students conduct their own studies. For example, doing statistical analyses on the relationship between ethnicity, poverty and such problems as date rape or incarceration, again in accordance with rather rigorous assessment criteria. Students and teachers met at Caltech to learn the basics of the analysis programs and get to know their team. In speaking with both young women it became readily apparent just how comfortable they were led to feel by the accomplished astronomers, most of whom held positions at prestigious universities. The Herschel telescope has gathered thousands of hours of data that have been archived because NASA doesn't have enough people to analyze everything. Students from a young age have a knack for asking so many questions about an unfamiliar task, that the answers reduce almost to routine what they have to do.
