I recently gave my students a totally extra credit assignment to design and to build a "fox-hole radio". It was more of a fun assignment. There was no punishment for not completing the extra credit. What happend was really interesting to me. I have a small class; but, two of my students made this a family project. They got their sons and daughters involved in the research and the building of the radio. Both people brought their radios in and the rest of the class participated in trying to make them work. It turned into a fun team building exercise; not only for the students, but for their families too. Personally, I thought that was cool. Oh, the way I set it up was credit for the design and credit for the build. Based on my reading of this course, was I wrong to assign this? I used the results for borderline cases - I wanted to see their desire. Instead, I saw family and our student body involvement. Although not directly related to our subject, it did apply. Again, the idea was to show innovative thinking and making it apply. Did I do wrong with this assignment? I think getting the family involved with their "significant others" participating in their class was worth it alone. thanks, jay