Students' Views of Science and Technology When Entering University

We conducted a survey of first year French University students for the purpose of discovering their views and opinions on the subject of Science and Technology. These views provide valuable information on that which is considered to be essential by the students, while having the advantage of a certain amount of detachment in relationship to the academic course content. Certain implications may be deduced concerning University teaching as well. Content analysis was used to study scientific titles and texts produced by the students; the resulting classification system made it possible to deduce the main ideas on themes such as scientific discovery and conquest, man's need to understand his environment, the future, etc.