NATCHEZ &8212; The science lab had a purse corner and the experiments were all very &8220;pretty&8221; &8212; for today.

Tomorrow, the same lab will turn into man&8217;s domain and you can bet words like pretty won&8217;t be uttered.

It&8217;s the new way of learning at Trinity Episcopal Day School, and, though they are cautious of saying so, most everyone likes it.

Seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders are spending at least an hour and 45 minutes a day in single sex classes. They&8217;ve also switched to a block schedule for a portion of the day, to provide more time for in-class activities.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays eighth-grade boys come to Stephanie Daly&8217;s science class. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it&8217;s the girls.

Each class covers the same material, but sometimes it happens in different ways, Daly said.

&8220;I may adapt how I present things, how I settle them down, divide them up,&8221; she said. &8220;With the girls I expect the bar graphs to be color coded, but the boys&8217; will just be straight lines.&8221;

Since the first report card isn&8217;t out yet it&8217;s too early to tell if the gender split effects grades, Head of School Delecia Carey said. But other effects are easier to pick up on.

&8220;There&8217;s no looking at him or looking at her,&8221; Daly said. &8220;I&8217;ve got more girls answering out. We have girl jokes.&8221;

And then there&8217;s the great debate.

&8220;It&8217;s quieter (without the boys),&8221; said Vashti Mersereau, an eighth-grader.

&8220;The girls take over and make it loud and try to control us,&8221; said Joseph McClatchy, a seventh-grader who was across the hall in his own single sex social studies class.

Each claims to be the quieter gender. But Daly had the definitive answer.

&8220;The boys are much, much quieter,&8221; she told her room of unbelieving girls.

And though the girls seem to miss the boys more than the boys miss them, both groups agreed there are good things and bad things about single sex classes.

&8220;It&8217;s a little easier to work in groups without them,&8221; Mersereau said. &8220;But it&8217;s different because we don&8217;t get to hear guys opinions on what we are doing. Maybe if the guys were in here they would have other experiences to relate to.&8221;

Jamey Dixey, 14, said she had more fun in class when the boys were around.

&8220;They make me laugh and they are fun to hang out with,&8221; she said. &8220;They goof off a lot.&8221;

Taylor Strahan said he liked class without the girls because it was a smaller group and things seemed to move faster.

&8220;We just act like boys,&8221; he said. &8220;They don&8217;t interfere with us.&8221;

The single-sex idea was spun from an emergency last year and an interest in the latest educational trends, Carey said.

After an influx of students from Katrina, Trinity had to add several classes. Since school was already in session, they needed a quick, non-debatable way to move students from one class to another. They went with a boy, girl split, and things went pretty well, Carey said.

&8220;There&8217;s a lot of talk about single sex classes in the popular press,&8221; Carey said. &8220;People all over are trying to promote it. We started looking into research and it indicated that it might be a way for our students to be more successful.&8221;

Most teachers were OK with trying the plan, but Daly admits she didn&8217;t like the idea at first.

&8220;If it had turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, this was something we could change at Christmas,&8221; Carey said. &8220;But now, we don&8217;t have any reason to be concerned that it&8217;s not working. As far as I can tell, it&8217;s something I think we&8217;ll stick with and discuss really seriously in the spring for next year.&8221;

Daly has warmed up to the idea, but said she thinks it&8217;s important that not every class is split by gender.

&8220;I wouldn&8217;t want them to be like this all day long,&8221; said Daly, who attended an all girls&8217; school in high school. &8220;Their personalities are different and they need that.&8221;

Across the hall, social studies teacher Millie Burke is a fan.

&8220;You can relate things better,&8221; she said. &8220;Girl things for girls, boy things for boys, like football analogies.

&8220;I have a shy girl who would not do what she&8217;s doing now with boys in there.&8221;

This semester, the seventh-grade students are split for social studies and English, the eighth-graders for English and science and the ninth-graders for keyboarding, Mississippi Studies, biology and English.

Carey said the school will closely review academic performance before making a decision about next year.