Upper primary boys' and girls' interests in science: have they changed since 1980?

Over the years concerns that many students have not been opting to study sc ience further than required, and not progressing to scientific careers, hav e been partly related to low levels of interest and negative attitudes deve loped quite early in life. Of particular concern have been the differences observed between girls and boys, especially the negative attitudes of many girls to the physical sciences, where findings from many different internat ional studies have been reasonably consistent. This paper reports on a 1997 study which repeated a 1980 survey of the attitudes of Year 7 South Austra lian primary school students. Given continuing approaches to improving scie nce education, especially for girls, the aim was to discover whether the ov erall levels of interest, and the sex differences, detected in 1980 had cha nged in 1997. The results show that, while there have been some changes, th ese are not always in the desired direction. Some implications of the findi ngs are discussed.