Attitudes to Science: 14-16 year olds
To coincide with the main work on Public Attitudes to Science 2011, a small-scale survey of 14-16 year olds (PDF, 346 Kb) was also carried out. This survey was carried out by OpinionPanel, and respondents came from the Young People’s Panel which they administer on behalf of the Young People’s Learning Agency.
It is important to note some methodological issues:
- The survey is not representative. 500 14-16 year olds were chosen from an online panel, which is itself self-selected;
- The survey was administered online (the “adult” version is administered face to face, and takes around 40 minutes to complete, compared to the 8 minutes average on this survey);
- There are some free response questions, but no detailed qualitative work to more context to the data;
- The survey was administered in January 2010, two weeks completion of the main survey);
- Due to budget constraints, only five attitudinal statements were kept from the main study;
- Questions on favourite subjects and career intentions are new, while those on visits to attractions are amended from those asked in the main survey.
Key findings
How People See Science
- 81% of respondents were amazed by the achievements of science, and 65% feel that it is important to know about science in their daily lives.
- Females are not as positive about science as males, while respondents from lower income backgrounds are not as positive as those from higher income brackets.
- Those who currently enjoy science at school, attend science clubs and plan to study science in the future are more positive.
Science in School
- Science was the most popular subject (16% favouring it), followed by English. Maths was only most popular for 8%.
- 49% plan to study science after their GCSEs – this was the most popular subject choice.
- 57% of learners have STEM-related clubs in their school. 60% of them have never been to a club where it does exist. Only 5% go to every possible meeting of the club. Those who have science as a favourite subject are more likely to attend.
- 27% of respondents report that external visitors talk to them about science at school on a “regular” or “fairly often” basis.
- Just 5% of learners plan to go into a science related career, although medical and health careers were most popular at 12%, and veterinary/animal care and engineering both 4%.
- Just 5% of learners had no interest in reading about science outside of school.
Finding out about science
- TV news represents the most popular way of hearing about science.
- 27% of respondents have visited a science museum, and 11% a science/discovery centre. They are more likely to visit science attractions with their parents.
- 33% will go to community related science events outside school, and 5% have gone to a science related lecture or talk.
