RANCHO PENASQUITOS -- Equipped with an assortment of kitchen storage items and office accessories, a couple dozen elementary students became sleuths Tuesday as they set out to prove their latest science mystery -- that of the "pesky puddle" and condensation.

Huddled in groups of four, students in Kara Myers' fifth-grade class at Los Penasquitos Academy diligently built small scientific experiments to answer the question of how water droplets could fall from pipes that weren't leaking.

Ordinary plastic storage containers, cups, sheets of plastic wrap, aluminium foil, marbles and tape were molded into test sites, where the students used what they had learned in class and from the textbook to show and measure their theory of how water molecules pool in the air.

"Without Mrs. Myers telling us what to do, it's kind of challenging and fun for us to prove what to do," 10-year-old Michael Saavedra said as his group put the finishing touches on their experiment and began writing a step-by-step description of how it was done. "We feel like scientists."

The hourlong, daily science period is dubbed the "HP Science Hour" after the company Hewlett-Packard that donated $25,000 last week to the school to help support the program's extended school hours and expanded curriculum. It is a time when the some 150 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at the academy learn in a more hands-on, engaging manner, Myers said.

The Los Penasquitos Academy is a "school within a school" at the Los Penasquitos Elementary School in the Poway Unified School District. Students in the magnet program spend an extra two hours in class each day and start school three weeks earlier in the summer, in an effort to allow for greater emphasis on literacy, science, social studies and math.

While the school does receive state funding through the district for some of the program's expenses, a lot of the cost, including cell phones for the five teachers and their salaries for the extra hours of teaching are covered through fundraisers, donations and educational grants. This was the school's first corporate donation, however.

"I hope it really will get the attention of the business community and show them that there are programs out there and they can be hugely instrumental," said Ami Askins, the president of the Los Penasquitos Academy Foundation, which financially supports the school. "This will keep the academy going."

Askins explained that while the money was donated in the name of science and will help fund the school's hour of science instruction, it will also aid other areas of study as well by just keeping the academy up and running.

In addition to this year's donation, Hewlett-Packard is providing each of the teachers with LCD projectors and has expressed an interest in maintaining a partnership with the academy's students and teachers in the years ahead, she said.

"It's really wonderful," Myers said, noting that the donation was made possible by an academy parent and Hewlett-Packard employee Rachel Perez, who presented the program to her bosses as they were looking for a place to contribute.

"Parents want to make sure it's around for their younger kids and others in the future," Myers said, pointing to the programs strong track record.

Since the school opened in July 2000, students have consistently performed well on state standardized tests, ranking among the top 10 percent of schools statewide, as well as in a similar school comparison on three different occasions. The school's score on the Academic Performance Index last fall -- the state's academic monitoring system that gauges how well a school is performing and improving student achievement by test scores in math and English -- was 875, well beyond the state's benchmark for success, 800.

"The learning is more real, more concrete for them," said Myers, who teaches science to all of the academy's fifth-grade students in two sessions, an early morning and afternoon class. "It takes all these abstract ideas for the kids and makes it real."

In class, students dabble in all aspects of science. Whether studying electromagnetism, analyzing rocks and minerals or getting their hands a bit dirty with chemistry experiments and possible animal dissections, the students use what they learn from textbooks as well as from experiments.

On Tuesday, many of the student groups enhanced their experiments by using information from previous class discussions about aluminium foil. Having learned before that the material conducts heat, Aidan Yun explained that her group decided to use the aluminium foil to help attract the sunlight and evaporate the water faster.

"We think we are lucky because we have a couple more hours to learn and do these experiments," the 11-year-old added. "We are having more fun and learning more than other kids."

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.