A ccording to recent study of Bay Area elementary school teachers released by researchers from the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley and WestEd, an education think tank based in San Francisco,  80 percent spend less than an hour each week teaching science, with 16 percent of respondents indicating they spent no time on science at all.  The recent results are a stark contrast to a national study done seven years ago which found elementary school teachers averaged more than  two hours of science instruction per week.  Ten times as many teachers responded that they felt inadequately prepared to teach science as opposed to math or reading.  The study paints a somber picture for the ability of the State to build a competent workforce to meet the needs of technology based industries, as evidence shows that people entering scientific fields generally form their perceptions about science at an early age.