Aim of this questionnaire-based study is to answer a question, whether there is a connection between upper secondary school students' intention to study STEM at university level, activisation level during experimental activity and situational interest triggered by such activity. The questionnaire is based on Intrinsic motivation inventory, the data are analysed by a two-way ANOVA.
Simply put, whilst hands-on experimenting appears to be most suited for students that do plan studying STEM, frontal demonstrations performed as a show have the highest potential to trigger situational interest in all students.