Education is a fundamental pillar of development and a human right and must be guaranteed with quality and equity in every country. When we discuss about science teaching, the spotlight has been focused on the understanding of the students' interests, priorities and concerns.
This is an exploratory research, and the questionnaire used is an adaptation of ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) questionnaire. ROSE was a comparative project initiated in Norway, which meant to shed light on affective factors of importance to the learning of science and technology. The target population is students towards the end of lower secondary school.
A total of 338 questionnaires were applied in Panama City by March 2007, and it aimed to collect empirical data, which can illustrate the Panamanian Students’ Interest toward S&T in three main domains: ‘What I want to learn about’, ‘My science classes’ and ‘My opinions about science and technology’.
This study also aims to compare the Panamanian youth's interests against a background of students from less modernized as from more modernized countries.
The results can be summarized under three main conclusions:
- Student’s positive attitudes towards science leads to positive interests in science related issues.
- Students' interests in science are gender-specific.
- There are some characteristic cross-national patterns in youth's interests that follow a modern–traditional divide.

Education is a fundamental pillar of development and a human right and must be guaranteed with quality and equity in every country. When we discuss about science teaching, the spotlight has been focused on the understanding of the students' interests, priorities and concerns.
This is an exploratory research, and the questionnaire used is an adaptation of ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) questionnaire. ROSE was a comparative project initiated in Norway, which meant to shed light on affective factors of importance to the learning of science and technology. The target population is students towards the end of lower secondary school.
A total of 338 questionnaires were applied in Panama City by March 2007, and it aimed to collect empirical data, which can illustrate the Panamanian Students’ Interest toward S&T in three main domains: ‘What I want to learn about’, ‘My science classes’ and ‘My opinions about science and technology’.
This study also aims to compare the Panamanian youth's interests against a background of students from less modernized as from more modernized countries.
The results can be summarized under three main conclusions:
- Student’s positive attitudes towards science leads to positive interests in science related issues.
- Students' interests in science are gender-specific.
- There are some characteristic cross-national patterns in youth's interests that follow a modern–traditional divide.

Keywords: students interest, science classes, science education, student voice, science and technology.

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