Basic science courses offered to freshmen medical students have been traditionally taught by didactic presentations and laboratory work. Various factors have prompted many departments to either markedly reduce the time allotted for the traditional, but more vulnerable, laboratory phase of these courses or drastically alter the content of the laboratory programs. Information concerning the desirability for such changes is incomplete and no evaluation has been developed to determine the effectiveness of change. Before beginning any further alterations in the laboratory programs at the Medical College of Virginia, it seemed desirable to determine anew what we wish to teach in the laboratory. This problem was approached in part by surveying the attitudes of other anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology departments
