Stephen, I enourage students to demonstrate the above and beyond attitude, with non-required projects, papers, or activities, but I don't award them credit that counts tiowards their grade, but I do reward them them with something as valuable: peer recognition. When students are singled out for ememplary effort, that makes the student feel recognized and appreciated, the class benefits by whatever the content of their work is, and other students learn that they may want that same kind of recognition. But I do not give EC points that will contribute to their grade because there are being graded on esssential material I determine is mandatory. I cannot have students weak or uninformed in one or more critical areas, then make up for it by an EC assignment that may have little to do with learning anything new. I think that is called grade inflation. Barry Westling