The pattern of jaw movements during mastication is fairly simple and lends itself to both a kinematic and a non-invasive electromyographic (EMG) analysis. Students are provided with a customized Mac computer/LabView software virtual instrument system for the acquisition, storage, and parametric analysis of kinematic video data correlated on a frame-by-frame basis with multichannel EMG records. Each student is asked to design and implement a set of mastication experiments, thus gaining exposure to library research, outlining a feasible project, writing a grant proposal, data collection, analysis, and final presentation of results.