SHOWS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THEIR PARENTS TOO : All her travels set the stage for this assistant on ‘Beakman’s World’

In the wacky scientific environment of “Beakman’s World,” Eliza Schneider takes charge of some pretty disgusting animals.

As first lab assistant in the children’s series, Schneider has held hissing cockroaches from Madagascar, slithery snakes, slimy slugs and active alligators. “I got to hold his mouth shut,” she proudly says of the scaly--and often cranky--reptile.

But she didn’t mind it in the least. “I had two brothers, and I was more into bugs than they were, so I think this is a blast.”

And so is the show. “We never say you’re too young for that to our audience,” she adds. “We never talk down to them. Kids don’t need to be patted on the head.”

“Beakman’s World,” which airs on both CBS and The Learning Channel, “was created by a bunch of revolutionaries from the ‘60s who are in a position of power now, and I think it’s beautiful.”

Schneider, 21, was raised in the ‘60s by Peace Corps parents in a Chippewa community--the Ojibwa Leech Lake Reservation. “I was the only white kid in school,” she recalls. Her mother was--and still is--an attorney specializing in Native American law. “She fights for Indian rights and for them to get their land back,” she says.

While in high school, Schneider and her family--which also consists of brother Stan, 24, a street performer, and her adopted Vietnamese brother Ben, 26, now in the U.S. military--moved to Rochester, N.Y., where she caught the acting bug after studying voice and violin.

“I’ve been an actress really since I was 10,” she says. Eventually, acting took her to the West Coast, where she worked in theater.

“Then I decided I wanted to learn about other cultures,” says Schneider, who recently received a world and cultures degree from UCLA. Her interest evolved into three trips in a self-converted ambulance across the country. And those resulted in her one-woman show, “I’m Not Weird: American Perspectives,” which she describes as “inspired by the diverse and righteous points of view I encountered.”

Schneider managed to incorporate her love of acting with her love of cultures. She turned an intense study of dialects into a book and tape for performers. “All the other material available is someone else ‘doing’ the accents. I’m putting together real people talking.” The actress interviewed some 400 people in her cross-country treks.

“It was really amazing,” she says. “I talked to people who were young, old, male, female, rich, poor, black, white and Native Americans.” She made stops occasionally along the way to ask people about themselves. “I just said I was interested in them. I didn’t want them to be self-conscious.” She found that their dialects “came more clearly when they were telling more emotional stories. That means a lot to people.”

Schneider, who now lives in Shadow Hills, says her one-woman show was a work in progress years ago and she hopes to finish and and perform it locally, using the dialects and stories she collected.

“Putting all their stories right next to each other, with their diverse and righteous points of view, made me to believe in them,” she says. With the divergent stories, she adds, “I really feel we can calm down stereotypes, which are at the root of social unrest.”

“Beakman’s World” airs Saturdays at 11 a.m. on CBS (although its time often changes due to sports events; this week it airs at 3:30 p.m.). It airs Sundays at 6 and 6:30 a.m. on The Learning Channel. For ages 5 and up.