President Margaret Shepherd talks to Sydney Morning Herald's Natassia Chrysanthos about how patterns of study are shifting for HSC science students. Read the full article here

"President of the NSW Science Teachers' Association Margaret Shepherd said the mathematical direction of the new syllabuses could have propelled students into alternative combinations of science subjects, including those with more practical components.

But it has not meant students are leaving the sciences. "We haven’t lost students – our [overall] numbers are still the same," she said. "If the total numbers dropped I would be really freaking out."

In the same two-year period, enrolments in biology and earth and environmental science jumped 3 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. A new science extension course and a practical subject, investigating science, have also been introduced and attracted smaller cohorts."