The investigation of students’ images of scientists and their work is of interest to researchers due to the widely held belief that the students’ perceptions are important preliminary indications for the future academic and professional choices. This study explored the images of 218 Peruvian high school students about scientists and their work (convenience sampling). Specifically, ‘Draw–A–Scientist Test’ (DAST) was administered, while the analysis framework included an enriched version of ‘Draw–A– Scientist Test–Checklist’ (DAST–C). Several descriptive and inferential analyses were performed in order to address the research questions. The results showed that Peruvian students hold common images of the scientists. The majority of the students depicted scientists as men, working indoors, wearing lab coats, surrounded by research symbols and involved in chemistry. In addition, the results showed, to a significant degree, that girls more frequently draw symbols of knowledge than boys. On the other hand, boys drew, on average, more stereotypical images than girls regarding the alternative stereotypical image subscale for scientists. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the remaining indicators and scales. Finally, it is noteworthy that Peruvian students' drawings included, on average, less stereotypical indicators than students of similar age from South Korea, Turkey, the United States of America, India, Greece, Bolivia, and Colombia.

This study examined the perceptions of upper primary grade level students about science, scientists, and their work. Participants were 284 fifth- and sixth-grade students (aged 10–12) from six urban areas of Attica (Greece). An open-ended questionnaire was employed for data selection. Students’ responses were analyzed both qualitatively (through thematic analysis) and quantitatively. The findings suggest that the participants in this study hold distinct perceptions of what science is, who a scientist is, and how science is done. Although most students referred to science and scientists in a positive light, our findings suggested that they held traditional and narrow perceptions of such issues (e.g., a scientist is a brilliant, talented person who works in natural sciences, science is a contributor to human welfare, or science is a product). Our data also suggested that the students could not make a clear distinction between science and technology, concepts that were used interchangeably in our study. Educational implications that may help breaking these naïve perceptions were discussed.