"Take 'quality.' There are completely different levels of acceptance of 'quality' work in school and in the real world. 'C' work will get you by in school, but not in business. To shift schools into the real world, there will need to be a closer relationship between business and education."

The students learned something very unacademic as well - flexibility in their approach to problem-solving. There were no blanks to be filled in.

All of the answers were simultaneously All Of The Above and None Of The Above.

"There was no one answer, and they had to build a consensus opinion," said Gamurot.

"That required teamwork and communication, which they're not used to. We had one boy, who's very bright but doesn't generally see the value of schoolwork, who immediately saw the value and the scope of this project and took over as a team leader. It might have been the first time in his school career that he saw school work being useful."

Other students benefited from the opportunity to combine a learning situation with a community project, and Gamurot intends to introduce a directed-studies curriculum that uses Portable Project ideals in other situations.

Meantime, the students gave Gamurot an award for honcho-ing the project through.

It's an inflated glove fitted over her coffee cup.

It's called, naturally, the Hands-On Choice Award for real-world science teaching.