Optimum time for efforts to attract minority students to a science career is when the students are enrolled in grade school and junior high school rather than at undergraduate and graduate levels, where many present programs are aimed. Student population is at its maximum in grade school, and successful efforts will reduce the amount of remedial work needed later. Attitudes which should be instilled during grade school in minority students, specifically Chicanos and Native Americans, include a feeling that science and mathematics are fun and that science is relevant to the child's culture, and a feeling of identification with men and women who are scientists and of self-worth and confidence in dealing with scientific and math concepts. These goals may be accomplished through"magic shows" using several standard demonstrations, i.e., chemical snake and the iodine clock reaction, to give minority grade school children a feeling that science is fun, teach them fundamentals, and present role models; culturally oriented classroom materials which show the interaction of science and native cultures; and computer programming as a learning strategy to teach problem solving. Minority scientists should be developing curricular materials along these lines and pressing for funding to work in these areas. (RS)