Collaboration among teachers and students is evident everywhere, with lab reports often taking the form of group presentations and student-led discussion. A number of converging factors are catalysts for change in the science department. Together these influences have altered the face of teaching and learning science at the Academy. Nowhere has the effect of change been more profound than in the constantly expanding base of scientific knowledge. Today, Exeter's science department offers 30 courses, double the number listed in the 1965 course catalog.
Advanced courses cover such specialized areas as molecular genetics, ecology, and marine biology.
Older faculty find themselves teaching material that did not exist when they were in graduate school. Technology in the science lab allows Exeter students to conduct research as practicing scientists do. The scanning electron microscope is just one piece of new technology aiding students in their search for answers in the lab. Along with the emergence of new fields in science, technology has made a major impact on classroom practice. Initially computers were little more than repositories of data in the lab.