Incorporating teamwork into lower level laboratory courses helps to educate students earlier about how "real" chemistry is done, by chemists working as teams not individuals working alone. Teamwork can be taught by role playing.

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Several articles have appeared in this Journal related to giving chemistry experiences to elementary school children. They include descriptions of a six-week enrichment program (i), a hands-on program for gifted students (2), a "chemistry set" lecture/lab course (5), a 20-week laboratory program for gifted students (4), and a take-home kit for students to use under parental supervision (5). We wish to describe a safe and attractive way to deliver a hands-on experience to students that they can engage in without direct adult supervision in elementary school library/media centers.Flexible scheduling has greatly increased the use of library/media centers in the elementary school. School libraries using flexible scheduling operate similarly to public libraries in that students are free to come in the library any time during the day and not at specified class times. Students are not limited to going to the library for a 30-minute block once a week as in the past. They are free to come to the library any time with their teacher's permission to look up a fact, do research, to browse, to work on computers, to play educational games, or to visit learning centers (6>).Flexible access is beneficial to learning by creating an environment that improves student learning. What is taught and learned in the library is integrated with what is taught and learned in the classroom. Library/media specialists create learning centers based on units of study that currently are being taught in the classroom. Open lines of communication between teachers and the librarian/media specialist are essential (7).