BIS ‘Attitudes to Science 2011’ survey reveals science viewed positively by 14-16 year olds

As part of the current ‘Public Attitudes to Science 2011’ work being carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) a small-scale survey of 500 14-16 years olds was carried out assessing their attitudes towards studying science at school, as well as their views on science careers.

Some of the findings will sadly be nothing new, such as the fact that ‘females are not as positive about science as males’ nor are ‘respondents from lower income backgrounds as positive as those from higher income brackets’.

However, there were also some very positive findings that emerged, for example: ‘science was the most popular subject (16% favouring it), followed by English’ and ‘49% plan to study science after their GCSEs – this was the most popular subject choice’ and also ‘57% of learners have STEM-related clubs in their school’ – showing that schools are trying hard to show the fun side of science and explore it beyond just a purely curriculum level.

One worrying finding was that ‘just 5% of learners plan to go into a science-related career’ underlining the fact that work still needs to be done regarding STEM careers, and STEM career awareness at school.

The full report can be downloaded below.