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ST. PAUL (AP) ― The first look at how Minnesota children are adapting to tougher state science standards isn't pretty.

On a new batch of state tests, fewer than 40 percent of fifth-graders and eighth-graders statewide met or exceeded scoring benchmarks for their age and just shy of 43 percent of high school students did. The results published Tuesday are startling to some in science education -- and renewing a debate about the amount of class time devoted to the subject.

"They are obviously lower than we hoped they would be," said Randy Smasal, a science specialist for the Anoka-Hennepin School District, the state's largest. "If this is an accurate measure of our science education, then we have a lot of work to do."

In fifth grade, the percentage of students deemed proficient in basic science was a tick above 39 percent; in eighth grade it was about 38 percent. A test covering life sciences such as biology is given once in high school. In all grades, there was a wide achievement gap between white students and those of other races.

The exams were taken by 184,570 public school students this spring. Unlike the state's pencil-and-paper math and reading tests, these assessments were taken on computers with some questions following video clips.

The test material is based on academic standards developed in 2004.

"Difficult standards mean difficult tests and lower scores," said Mike Lindstrom, executive director of SciMathMN. The 15-year-old nonprofit group combines efforts of education and business leaders to put more emphasis on the two subjects.

A high school test taker, for example, might be asked to label the parts of a plant cell -- from chioroplast to cytoplasm. A fifth grader might see a bar graph on an animal population and use it to describe trends.

Smasal said it's important to dig beneath the raw results to determine where students are struggling. The state eventually turns over information to districts that tells instructors if students tried to answer questions or skipped them altogether, he said.

The science results aren't used in rating schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which for now focuses on math and reading scores. But state Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said they show the need for students to get a solid science background before they head off to college or careers.

While there is only one year of data, Lindstrom said he thinks the results will prompt schools to re-examine the attention they're paying to science.

"The same pressures that came to bear for schools in math and reading will happen in science," he said. "Just the fact that these are being published in newspapers puts tremendous pressure on schools."

Don Pascoe, the assessment and research director for Osseo schools, said the results contradict the solid performance by Minnesota students on science portions of the ACT college entrance exam and other internationally known tests.

Former State Sen. Steve Kelley also said he's not convinced this test is the best measurement of student progress in science. But he expects the results to cause a stir anyway.

"We have to seriously look at how we structure the school day because science shouldn't be just mastering a series of facts," said Kelley, now the director of the Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute. "There should be time for students to really explore subjects in depth and conduct the kind of hands-on work that gives people a sense as to how science actually happens."

Pascoe said he worries about the pendulum swinging too far.

"The simple solution is to do more time," Pascoe said. But, he added, "it peels time again away from things like social studies and art and other things that are important, too."

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