At Moorestown Friends School, second graders use chutes, levers, pulleys, buckets and wagons to move a toy truck along a Rube Goldberg-like course. "Yes!" they cry in unison, with high fives all around, when the truck gets back to square one.

In West Chester, first graders at Fern Hill Elementary School study the life cycle of insects, writing down what they see. And third graders examine the effect of cabbage juice on sugar, baking soda and cornstarch, using their hands to "waft" the air so any noxious odor doesn't overwhelm their sense of smell.

"I like investigations and finding things out," said Michael Bonsall, 9, goggles covering half his small face.

In the new science classroom, teachers still offer instruction, but in smaller doses. Lab work and treks outdoors are now integral to elementary and middle school instruction.

"We're engaging kids more in the process of science, not just the content," said Paul Joyce, science supervisor in the West Chester district.

This is learning science by doing science, a change in instruction that is costing schools time and money, yet is fast gaining traction as educators heed warnings that the economic health of the region - and the nation - demands a science- and tech-savvy workforce.

Surveying and interviews conducted by The Inquirer in recent months for this Report Card on the Schools show that schools are making concerted efforts to attract students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the so-called STEM fields.

This year's Report Card, which focuses on science, also shows that math education continues as a priority for the region's schools.

Inside this report, you'll find that:

16 percent of districts in Philadelphia and the four Pennsylvania suburban counties say their fourth graders now spend more than four hours a week on science, a subject not long ago taught as seldom as once a week. Fewer districts in South Jersey reach the four-hour mark, but 41 percent report that their fourth graders spend at least three hours a week on science.

At the high school level, nearly a third of the 160 public high schools in South Jersey and suburban Philadelphia now require four years of college-prep science or math - or both - for graduation. That's one year more than the states mandate.

And large percentages of students in many schools are entering ninth grade already having taken Algebra I.

While there is progress, there is far to go: Results of the 2009 science assessments in Pennsylvania and New Jersey show high achievement in fourth grade but numerous low scorers in eighth and 11th grades, even in some of the region's top-performing schools.

The push for science has help in a pertinent corner: children's own innate curiosity.

"Kids want to understand the physical world," said Barbara Kreider, chair of the science department at Moorestown Friends School. "Our job is to explain that world to them."

The goal for students not interested in pursuing a career in the sciences, Kreider said, is a lofty one: "to give them critical thinking skills . . . to be an educated citizen."

Multiple industry, business and postsecondary initiatives in the Philadelphia region have stepped up to promote math and science teaching and learning. Temple, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania all have programs to train scientists and engineers as teachers or to upgrade teachers' skills.

The Math + Science Coalition of the Philadelphia Education Fund has a new initiative to alert parents to the value of math and science coursework.

And over the last two years, about 100 area companies and institutions have endorsed STEM goals in an initiative called the Greater Philadelphia Compact for STEM Education. Many compact signers have long awarded grants and promoted outreach, especially to girls and minorities, two groups chronically underrepresented in the sciences.

The impact of corporate support can be significant.

For instance, in the early 1990s, Bayer Corp. of Pittsburgh launched ASSET Inc. - Achieving Student Success Through Excellence in Teaching - to raise student achievement in science by improving instruction.

Impressed with its success in Western Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell in 2007 tapped ASSET to manage his $50 million hands-on elementary science initiative called Science: It's Elementary.

According to Rendell, the program is in 134 Pennsylvania schools, including about two dozen public and charter schools in the Philadelphia area, reaching 72,000 students and 2,900 teachers.

One measure of its effectiveness is PSSA assessment results. An evaluation by an independent group, Horizon Research Inc., showed students in ASSET schools scoring higher than students in demographically similar schools that don't have it. And they scored higher not only on the science but also on math and reading PSSAs.

Even high-poverty schools using the approach benefited. In nearly a third of schools using the ASSET approach, with extensive teacher training, 90 percent or more students scored proficient or better on the new science PSSA.