Year 4 students were generally very positive about doing science at school. A clear majority chose the highest rating for the first question (about liking to do science at school), and two thirds would like to do more science at school. The students were less confident that they learned a lot of science at school, with about one third saying that they learned "heaps" and only 22 % saying that their class did really good things in science "lots."

Over half were enthusiastic about doing science things in their own time, with a quarter saying they did "lots" of really good science things in their own time.

More than half wanted to keep learning about science when they grew up, and almost a quarter thought they would make good scientists when they grew up.

The ratings given to the science survey questions by year 8 students were lower than those by year 4 students. More experienced students can be expected to be more discerning and critical, as well as more realistic about their own abilities. Nevertheless, the magnitudes of the changes between year 4 and year 8 on several questions which were identical in the two surveys appear to justify some concern.

Compared to year 4 students, on average year 8 students had distinctly less positive perceptions of science and themselves as science learners. For instance, on the first question in the survey (relating to enjoyment of science as a school subject), 33 percent of year 8 students used the most positive rating compared with 60 percent of year 4 students. Similarly, on the question "How good do you think you are in science?" 10 percent of year 8 students chose the top rating, compared with 25 percent of year 4 students.