Phillips Brooks House began an experimental program this week to introduce elementary science principles to underpriviledged children in West Cambridge.

It will be the first time that a science curriculum has been used in a Cambridge after school program. All past PBH programs have stressed arts and crafts.

It is hoped that the science curriculum will provide more intellectual stimulation and more continuity than previous arts and crafts projects, Benjamin A. Barnes '68, chairman of the PBH group, said recently.

"Traditional arts and crafts groups lay more stress on making things than how they are made," Barnes said. "We are trying to teach children how to ask and answer their own questions about the problems we give them."

Gives Tangible Materials

Barnes stressed the major reason for using a science program "was that it puts tangible materials right in front of tre child rather than only giving him social science abstractions to work with."

The ninety participating children -- aged seven to ten and mostly Negro will be grouped in classes of six to eight children.

The children will conduct a variety of elementary experiments using basic science tools, under the supervision of a Harvard and a Radcliffe volunteer.

For example, Barnes said, the classes will use different sized colored blocks to practice methods of categorizing and organizing information, or they will study the uses of electricity by building circuits and electric magnets.

Scales will also be used, Barnes added, to teach elementary match concepts, and small microscopes will enable children to study everything from "pond water to onion skin."

Some of the materials will be provided free by Educational Services Inc. of Watertown, an non-profit corporation which specializes in developing scientific teaching programs for schools.