Contemporary physics topic interest of students in primary school

The paper presents a study of students’ interest in science and the identification of interesting topics not covered in physics classes. 136 8^th and 9^th grade students from a particular primary school in Slovenia participated in the survey. The results show that primary school students find it interesting to learn about contemporary physics. Gender and interest in science influence students’ choices of what topics they find interesting and their responses to lessons on the selected most interesting topic in physics. Specifically, of the seven proposed topics briefly presented to the students (radioactivity, liquid crystals, physics in medicine, astronomy, energy sources, technical devices, and hydrogels), radioactivity proved to be the most interesting. Most students would like to learn more about the findings of contemporary physics, while one in three students would like to take an elective. For female students, physics in medicine ranked first in interest, while for male students, radioactivity ranked first. Students found school lessons on radioactivity interesting. The results indicate that students want to learn about the content of contemporary physics and that such topics are more attractive to them than the content of regular physics classes, which is also shown in the evaluation of the most popular topic, radioactivity. The research indirectly appeals to teachers to include contemporary physics topics in physics classes.