Reality Classrooms : Students learn lessons by investing university foundation funds, making the rounds at a local hospital, working at a zoo or repairing cars.

The 12 students in Finance 437 are extremely conscientious about doing their homework because the stakes in this class are higher than just a grade. Instead of learning about investments strictly from a textbook, these students are investing real money--$500,000 of it--that belongs to a university foundation.

Learning from experience has long been a favorite teaching tool, and more and more teachers are finding ways to bring real-life, hands-on lessons to the classroom--whether it’s making the rounds at a hospital, learning auto mechanics by working on cars or planning a budget for a homeless shelter.

“Other professors are always saying, ‘Out in the real world. . ,’ but in this class is a chance to apply everything I’ve learned,” said Karen Pavia, 28, a finance major in the Student Investment Management class at Cal State Northridge.

The money, which has been handled by professional investment managers in the past, comes from the CSUN Foundation and is used to pay for athletics, student and faculty projects, scholarships and various other items not covered by state funds.

If this were just a textbook case, Pavia said, “we wouldn’t go into as much depth in our research. This class is conducted just like a business. It’s not a regular class environment.”

Department Chairman Bill Jennings said working with real capital is much more exciting than just learning investment skills from a textbook.

“The students treat this project very seriously,” he said. “They get a lot out of it. It’s one thing to talk about paper money; it’s another thing to have real money that affects the university.”

Student Alex Casillas, 23, of Arleta said other finance classes are more theoretical, but in this class, “you’re learning through experience and not just a book. It’s a real-life experience of actually being out there and doing the research (for investments). It’s a great opportunity.”

The students, who began investing the funds recently, gained experience not only in researching various industries and drawing up investment guidelines, but “are also getting group decision-making skills, which is not something we tend to emphasize in finance classes, but is important in the real world,” Jennings added.

Applying academic lessons to real situations is a teacher’s dream, agreed Kent Nealis, who teaches math and economics at Harvard-Westlake school in Studio City.

Nealis’ students were asked by a builder last fall to plan a homeless shelter for men. The students, mostly 11th- and 12th-graders, did research and came up with a budget for construction and a year’s maintenance, including food and utilities.

“The kids got a great sense of accomplishment from working on a plan that will actually be used,” Nealis said. “They felt they were coming up with a real solution to a real problem. So much of the time, they sit in the classroom and passively listen, but they don’t really get involved.”

Nealis said this project “helped them understand the things we talked about in class, where they learn about welfare spending and the difference between what is efficient and what is fair. They learned how to use limited funds, about opportunity costs or what you have to sacrifice to do this. It’s the essence of economics.

“It was fun for them, and it gave us a pool of real-world experiences to bring to class,” Nealis said.

Several Los Angeles Unified School District magnet programs use the community for hands-on learning. Learning by doing “is the way education has to be if it’s going to have any meaning,” said Joan Martin, a magnet coordinator at Van Nuys High School.

Students in the Van Nuys medical careers magnet, for example, can rotate through various departments at Valley Presbyterian Hospital for 10-week stretches.

Using dual microscopes, students can peer along with technicians at various blood or tissue samples. They can watch surgeries, sit in on tumor board meetings, listen to the ethics committee and “be in situations that are real,” Martin said.

No textbook can teach you how to perform before an audience, as the L. A. Youth Ensemble--a troupe of students from Van Nuys High School’s performing arts magnet--learned from a gig on a Disney Channel special. That performance led to an invitation to entertain at President Clinton’s inaugural celebration.

Students from North Hollywood High School’s Animal and Biological Sciences Center spend most of their time at the Los Angeles Zoo.

“Students get behind-scenes tours of exhibits, talk to zookeepers and animal handlers, and really get close to the animals,” coordinator Pauline Haber said.

Students can actually help zookeepers observe some animals, making notes on eating, socializing and other animal behavior patterns. Some students recently helped weigh and measure the zoo’s giant python, while others might help muck out stalls or clean hoofs.

Others can dig into the landscape area, working side by side with zoo gardeners and designers, helping plan exhibits and plant vegetation.

“By actually doing it, the knowledge becomes real, because they’ve experienced it,” Haber said.

Some subjects can really only be taught in a hands-on way, said teacher Lou Berns, who guides students as they take photos and write copy for the yearbook at Birmingham High School in Reseda.

In some learning situations, reality-based instruction is so important that the entire education system is based on that principle.

At the West Valley Occupational Center, for example, “our whole purpose is the immediate transfer of skills,” said Helen Schwab, assistant principal, adult counseling services. “Our program needs to stay relevant.”

She said high school students, who attend for free, often take evening or weekend classes to gain skills they can use immediately upon graduation.

Students in the automotive department work on cars that area residents bring in. Customers pay only for parts, since labor is part of the curriculum.

Printing and graphic arts students do brochures, while cosmetology students create hairdos and give facials and manicures. Budding bakers not only learn cooking skills, but also sell their products through the center’s store.

“And as for the wallpaper class,” Schwab added, “you can look throughout the school and see what they have done.”

Part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s adult education department, the Woodland Hills center opened in 1965 with 35 classes. There are now 125 classes with about 5,500 students per semester.

Working on a home-decorating project for two months was an important part of gaining design skills for Janis Nemitz of Canyon Country, who learned interior designing through the Learning Tree, a private, nonprofit school with campuses in Chatsworth and Thousand Oaks.

Through an internship class, Nemitz went on real jobs, measuring for drapes, compiling color boards and selecting fabric. She also “learned how to deal with people, how to find out what they are looking for. That’s not anything textbooks can teach you,” she said.

“Our whole philosophy is reality-based, to strip out the theoretical and get to real problems and situations,” said Christy Wilson of the Learning Tree, explaining that the school was started in 1974 by Mike Gould, then a 19-year-old college student who didn’t think college offered any real practical training.

Most of its classes, which run the gamut from the creative arts to computer and office skills, are reality-based and very hands-on, she said.

Learning by doing is “an opportunity you just don’t pass up,” finance student Casillas said. “I now have the real-life experience of actually being out there and doing the research and making a real investment. I hope this gives me a leg up in the real job market.”