Many educators and examiners are concerned with the poor quality of practical work at the school level. There is a need to shift the emphasis in science practical from the nuts and bolts of the discipline to the nature and structure of the discipline so that the skills and abilities which provide insights into the mode of inquiry of the discipline as well as the attitudes of the scientists.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) says that for this the investigatory projects in science need to taken up seriously at the senior secondary level. According to the CBSE, an investigatory science project is an extended problem that is the outgrowth of the pupil'''s own interest and endeavour at problem solving and should be re lat ed to the curriculum.

According to Lalit Kishore, a science project involving discovery of finding out is called the investigatory project. In contrast to the common laboratory experiments, an  investigatory project in open-ended in which outcomes or results are not known to the students.

If the essence of science is to be captured by school students, there is a need to make a shift in the laboratory work. UNESCO also mentions that besides the laboratory experiments, a science laboratory for open-ended and investigatory experiments.

Thus, there is a dire need to take science investigatory projects and experiments seriously at the senior secondary level.