Science Classes Remain Low Priority in Most U.S. Grade Schools : Education: Goal is to be best in world by 2000, government says. Educators say more hands-on instruction is needed.

Ilene Banker’s kindergartners listen to their hearts with stethoscopes fashioned from paper towel tubes, and then return to their desks where calf, lamb and chicken hearts await their scrutiny.

Down the hall, Gail Krehel’s second-graders spend an hour learning about the dynamics of wind, and youngsters simulate the swirling of tornadoes by shaking homemade devices fashioned from plastic soda bottles filled with water.

At Parkway School, cited for excellence by the U.S. Department of Education two years ago, elementary science is taught the way most educators think it should be, but all too rarely is: with hands-on experiences, adequate class time and a spirit of discovery and experimentation.

The nation’s governors and the Bush Administration agreed in February that U.S. students should be first in the world in science achievement by the year 2000. A key step toward reaching that goal is improving elementary science instruction.

That won’t be easy.

Study after study has shown serious deficiencies in both the quality and quantity of science instruction for elementary students.

Instead of the thrill of discovery, they more often get the tedium of texts.

The situation is even more serious for girls, whose science achievement typically lags behind boys and worsens through high school, often because parents and educators offer girls little encouragement.

“We’re systematically sorting out women and minorities,” said Bill Aldridge, executive director of the National Science Teachers Assn.

A 1988 international comparison of science achievement among fifth-graders in 14 countries found U.S. students ranking in the middle.

The latest statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress found more than two-thirds of U.S. elementary school teachers spend less than two hours a week on science. Eleven percent of third-graders say they had no science instruction at all.

In New Jersey, a 1988 survey found that less science was being taught in every elementary grade than four years earlier.

In fourth grade, for example, New Jersey schools averaged 70 minutes a week of science instruction in 1988, down from 98 minutes in 1984, but still better than the national average of 28 minutes. The science teachers association recommends 100 minutes of science a week for fourth-graders.

The sad result of this lack of time spent on science: Only one in four 9-year-olds tested by NAEP demonstrated basic understanding of life or physical sciences--were able, for example, to correctly identify in a multiple-choice test that a fox is a predator of a mouse.

This northern New Jersey suburb demonstrates that solid grounding in science in the elementary years is critical to later success. About 85% of Paramus high school students take at least three years of science, including biology and chemistry. Nationwide, only about a third do so.

Part of the problem is that parents and educators alike consider reading the primary mission of elementary education. In many schools around the country, that has meant science doesn’t rank as an educational “basic” in the same league as language skills or math.

Reading instruction typically takes up as much as seven times more elementary class time than math, the next most-taught subject, according to several statewide studies.

Science often is even more vulnerable in tight budgetary times, which many states, including New Jersey, now face. This month, New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio announced sharp reductions in state education aid, and Paramus’ science coordinator, Bob DiBlasi, said science-related field trips could be vulnerable to cuts.

Even in a district like Paramus with a longstanding commitment to science education, the subject must fight for ever-scarcer classroom time, DiBlasi said.

Pressure in recent years from parents and politicians for AIDS education, drug education, moral education and the like has put elementary class time at an even greater premium, he said.

Many educators contend that reaching the governors’ goals for science education will take no less than a concerted and costly effort to improve teacher training and devise better curricula similar to federal programs launched in the early 1960s following Sputnik.

“I believe it down to my shoes: It’s a matter of resources,” said Joel Bloom, New Jersey’s assistant state commissioner in charge of science programs.

“All this talk about goals is nice, but it’s not going to happen without money,” said Aldridge, of the science teachers association.

Nationally, most elementary schools spend less than $10 per pupil for science supplies or equipment.

But schools like Parkway and others cited for excellence demonstrate that new spending is only part of the answer.

Teachers like Banker and Krehel and administrators like DiBlasi illustrate that creativity and dedication are at least as important, especially since elementary schools rarely have full-scale labs.

Linda Wrhen of the Smedley Street School in Oil City, Pa., who is participating in a new national teacher training project sponsored by the science teachers association and Upjohn Co., has her third-graders make string telephones to study sound.

When Banker wanted to teach her kindergartners about the heart, she got the father of one her pupils to donate the calf, lamb and chicken hearts from his butcher shop.

To run her experiment on tornadoes, Krehel brought in the plastic soda bottles and persuaded Parkway’s principal, Joe Roma, to give her about $50 for connecting tubes.

But even if some schools seem able to do the job without fancy lab equipment, there is no substitute for adequate classroom time. Paramus kindergartners spend an average of 75 minutes to 90 minutes a week on science--roughly triple the New Jersey statewide average of 29 minutes for that grade.

Another key ingredient for solving science education’s problems appears to be clearly enunciated districtwide goals.

In the last couple of years in Paramus, for example, school administrators made it a priority to get more girls into advanced science programs. Teachers and guidance counselors were asked to encourage girls, and there were meetings with parents to make them aware of opportunities.

One result is that this school year, eight female students are taking advanced placement physics, compared to none last year. And female enrollment in advanced placement biology is up 45% from a year ago.