Though no standardized University-wide reforms are being instituted at the moment, a number of professors are trying out new techniques of teaching and material presentation. For instance, Martin says, the teachers of Physics 11 are trying to encourage greater class participation and more peer discussion during lectures.

And several science department are making changes of their own, say administrators.

Professor of the Practice in the Teaching of Mathematics Deborah Huges Hallett says that the math department has adopted a new focus for its introductory classes.

"There has been a lot of unhappiness in the way that calculus has been taught in the past, not only at Harvard, but also at other colleges," Hallett says.

In Math 1a and 1b, for instance, the new stress in on methods of incorporating calculators and computers into the material, Hallett says.

"You want people to learn enough of the basic ideas so that they can see how they work and apply them, rather than teaching more abstract math," she says.

Many concentrations, including biology, economics and the physical science require a minimum of one year of calculus for concentrators.

"Not all of the calculus is relevant to all of the students taking the course," she says. "The new way of doing the course has been more applicable to other fields."

One such course, Hallett says, is Math 20.

"Math 20 is designed mainly for people going into the social sciences, for economics concentrators, for people who would not have taken multivariable calculus otherwise," she says.

This new approach to the teaching of math is not unique to Harvard, Hallett says.

"Within the next few years they are going to change the high school [Advanced Placement] exams to incorporate these changes," she says.

Hallett recently coauthored a book on the new calculus curriculum.

Professor of Chemistry David A. Evans has a different focus in the new approach to teaching. Evans says he believes it is important for professors to pay more attention to the teaching of undergraduate in order to win them over to the sciences.

"All we have to do our job well and the student will fall in love," says Evans, who teaches Chemistry 30. "We are trying to introduce more advanced concepts into the introductory sequence."