Political science professors are having a ball.

Scrapping well-worn lectures they may have recited for years, government teachers are relishing the fresh lessons unfolding this semester in California's high-stakes, drama-filled recall election.

These experts on the nuances of California politics and workings of state government have revamped long-standing lesson plans -- many at the last minute -- to reflect the all-consuming debate over whether Gov. Gray Davis should be kicked out of office and replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger or one of more than 130 other would-be governors.

"Recall 101" has cachet at campuses across the state, with government professors at California State University, Sacramento; University of California, Berkeley; the University of Southern California; California State University, Fresno; and Claremont Mc-Kenna College saying they are somehow weaving the nearly unprecedented political event into their curriculum.

Teaching the recall seems to be particularly consuming at Sac State, where the only debate to feature Schwarzenegger with other leading candidates to replace Davis will be held later this month.

"How can you not teach the recall if you're into state politics?" says Ken DeBow, a government professor at CSUS. "Things are changing day to day to day. It's fun, and it's making me teach differently."

For years, when he taught his course on California government, DeBow says he skimmed over recalls, explaining them as direct democracy tools usually targeting locally elected officials. He lectured heavily on the popular voter initiative process that has had far more influence on the state.

"I've been talking about initiatives for so long, it was all rote," DeBow says.

But in his new, recall-centric syllabus for an upper division state and local government course, there's no mention of ballot initiatives.

Instead, DeBow asks students to ponder whether the recall "is just loony, or rather a healthy manifestation of breaking the mold; participation politics for which this state is famous."

He has formally challenged his 50 students to "muster a credible response to your out-of-state friends' question: 'What's going on out there in California, anyway?' " To do that, he's asking them to keep a daily log of media coverage and write a final paper on the recall campaign and its Oct. 7 outcome.

And he's warned them, "Everything will play back to the recall one way or another."

Like DeBow, assistant professor of government Kimberly Nalder is drawing on the recall to engage a class of mostly freshmen, nongovernment majors in her introductory course on politics at CSUS.

"As a citizen, I'm concerned about what the recall means for democracy," Nalder says. "But as a professor, it's one of the greatest opportunities ever. It's a no-brainer really when you see how riled up the students are about it."

While DeBow's informal survey of his 50 students showed that 75 percent will go to the polls Oct. 7, there's no consensus on whether the recall and its unusual cast of characters will galvanize large numbers of college students and other young voters.

But even students who can't be persuaded to vote or follow politics by the history-making, celebrity-tinged event won't diminish the excitement for political junkies like Fresno State professor David Schecter, who insists: "This is like every major holiday rolled into one for people who teach politics."

Indeed, says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a public policy professor and widely quoted political analyst at University of Southern California who calls teaching in the midst of the recall "a kick."

As a mid-term test of their recall expertise, Bebitch Jeffe will make her 20 graduate students stage their own recall debate, assuming the personalities of five candidates and articulating their positions on three pithy issues: workers' compensation reform, health care for the uninsured and business property taxes.

"I feel really lucky to have the recall as a teaching tool," Bebitch Jeffe said. "California politics is my area, and it's not always been easy to get cachet or recognition for that with students and other academics. I think this will change all that."