By Jeff Hudson
Enterprise staff writer
The Davis Enterprise

Davis youngsters routinely get something in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades that most classmates in surrounding cities and towns don't - a teacher dedicated to teaching science with 'hands-on' opportunities, in a special science classroom.

Very often, this classroom is inhabited by interesting critters, such as snakes, rodents, worms or fish or even a moray eel, living in a suitable cage or tank. Also on hand are live plants, microscopes, maps and other stimulating materials.

By contrast, in most California school districts, elementary science is taught from a textbook, in the regular classroom by an overworked classroom teacher, who also teaches math and English and other subjects. But more than 10 years ago, the Davis school district started what's called a 'pull-out program' or a 'science prep' program - and it's now a well-established part of the curriculum.

Historically, these elementary science teaching positions have been funded through periodic renewals of the Davis school district's long-standing instructional parcel tax.

Earlier this year, when budget cuts threatened, the elementary science program was saved for the 2008-09 school year as part of the $1.77 million raised and donated by the Davis Schools Foundation.

Now the school district is hoping to fund the elementary science teaching positions, as well as several other programs, for three more years by asking voters to approve a new parcel tax, Measure W, on the Nov. 4 ballot. Measure W will cost homeowners $120 per year, with owners of apartments and other multi-unit housing paying $50 per unit per year. The measure requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

Leslie Whiteford has been teaching science at Willett Elementary School for five years.

'The advantage is that we teach science as an inquiry-based program,' rather than facts to be memorized, Whiteford said. 'The kids have the opportunity to do labs on a frequent basis. It's activity-based learning ...

'Last week, my kids were using microscopes to look at matter, and see how things are made out of smaller and smaller pieces. This week, we're talking about the periodic table, and atomic structure.'

The idea is to get students to learn by following the scientific method - making measurements, gathering data and drawing conclusions that are firmly based on facts.

And do students enjoy this hands-on way of learning science?

'Oooohhh yeah,' Whiteford said. 'The kids want to be in the science room all the time. They love getting their hands dirty, doing what we do.'

Science teachers at the junior high and high school level are well aware that they benefit from the work done by elementary science teachers like Whiteford.

'They lay the foundation for inquiry-based learning, and the skills that come along with that are invaluable,' said Ken McKim, a science teacher at Harper Junior High for the past five years, and at Holmes Junior High before that.

McKim used to teach in a middle school in the Vacaville school district, which doesn't have an elementary science program like Davis'.

'In Vacaville, (new middle school students) would need to be taught 'What is the metric system?' and how to use it. But in Davis, the seventh-grade students come in with those skills, with exposure to microscopes. The kids come in already knowing what a hypothesis is. It allows me to get deeper more quickly in terms of content.

'Our students are getting to a higher level of questioning sooner, rather than later. As a teacher, I'm not taking as much time getting everybody to the same level. We can get them all pretty deep into the curriculum pretty quickly.'

Tim Peevyhouse has been teaching science at Davis High since 2000. He taught at a high school in the Fairfield-Suisun school district for five years before that.

'My experience is that the students here have a much better background' than the students in the other district, Peevyhouse said. 'They've done more things in the classroom.'

And the interest in science that was initiated in elementary school, and advanced in junior high, manifests itself in a panorama of science courses at Davis High.

'I've never seen this kind of variety of science courses at another high school,' Peevyhouse said. 'At a lot of other schools, you'd take biology in ninth grade, chemistry in 10th grade and maybe physics in the 11th grade.

'But at Davis High, there are all kinds of things you can take - biotechnology, and zoo/bot (zoology/botany), which I teach, and all kinds of AP classes. ... We have five sections of AP biology, not one. And given that these classes are almost all full, I have to assume that Davis High students are taking far more science courses that students at other high schools in the region.

'Without the funding (from Measure W), it just will not be the same,' Peevyhouse said. 'Students won't have the same choices. But I think people are going to step up and realize that it's something that has to be done.

'I think people realize that it's not for the teachers, it's not for the school district - it's for their kids, and the kids of the community. And I think everybody's going to be able to benefit from it.'