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50 high school students, 25 boys and 25 girls, were individually interviewed using a series of open-ended questions to analyze the cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors in adolescents' attitudes toward their pets. It was hypothesized that cognitive elements would progress from the concrete operations stage to the formal operations stage, that empathy and perspective taking would continue developing, and that behavioral elements would be closely related to realistically assessed characteristics of pets. Although the data supported the second and third hypotheses, only 30 (60%) of the subjects had reached the formal opeerations stage of cognition. An unexpected finding was that a higher percentage of high school students than of the grade school students previously studied in 1985 indicated closeness to and love for their pets. Further research was suggested

116 Catholic (50 9th graders and 66 12th graders) and 92 public high high school students (52 9th graders and 40 12th graders) completed questionnaires concerning sexual knowledge and information about sexual activity. Analysis indicates that 33% of the Catholic and 73% of the public 12th graders had previous sexual experience. The Catholic school 12th graders had significantly higher scores on a sex knowledge test than the public school students, however, there were no significant correlations between these scores and sexual activity for either school. The factors that students said encouraged sexual experimentation included curiosity, need for love, and peer pressure, while the factors that discouraged these behaviors were fear of pregnancy and sexually transmissible diseases. Fear of contracting AIDS and religious beliefs did not strongly influence sexual behavior.

A journey back in time leads to self-directed learning for high school geology students as they walk with dinosaurs through the Mesozoic period. Reuben, a known gang member, was reading [...]

The study investigated perceptions of AIDS prevention and education among 308 Grade 11 pupils (132 boys and 176 girls), secondary school pupils (mainly Northern Sotho and Tsonga) in the Northern Province of South Africa. They were chosen randomly from three rural schools in Mankweng district and were ages 17 to 25 years (M age=19.1 yr., SD=2.8). Analysis of ratings given on items of a questionnaire on AIDS prevention and education indicated that 'Isolating people who are HIV positive' and 'How to protect yourself from getting HIV/AIDS' received the highest ratings. Factor analysis extracted three factors on AIDS education explaining 48% of the variance. The items loading strongly on the first factor were use of condoms (.54), giving information (.53), finding a cure (.52), and no sex outside marriage (.42). On AIDS education two factors were extracted accounting for 52% of the variance. The first factor had significant item loadings for 'sexual behaviour and HIV/ AIDS' (.75), 'knowledge of self-protection' (.68), 'how AIDS/HIV affects the body' (.66), and 'alcohol and sexual behaviour'. These findings should contribute to the development of health promotion initiatives directed at AIDS/HIV.

A novel Nebraska one-week high school chemistry camp, which serves as an outreach model for regional colleges/universities, is discussed. The goals of the camp are to identify promising future chemists among high school students, give them hands-on instruction/experience in laboratory methods/technology, enhance student awareness of how chemistry is applied in professional laboratories, and to use camp materials and projects to help high school chemistry teachers. Students would have completed the second or third high school year before being recruited. The on-campus program was established by the Dept. of Chemistry at the Univ. of Nebraska at Kearney. Several departments offering camp sessions at one time might have success and profit by interdisciplinary activities.

Analysis of soft drinks through use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is discussed. A mentorship originated by a center for inquiry for gifted students at a high school was intended to expose a student to the laboratory routine of a chemist at a pharmaceutical company, Bristol Myers Squibb. Three scientists split the 12-hour commitment and all involved felt rewarded. The student learned how to design an experiment, with controls, for unknown analysis and his final report is included.