The out-of-school science interest activities of children were investigated in this study. The author sought to update previous findings establishing variations in the science interest activity patterns of boys and girls as well as to relate these activities to different racial groups. An instrument was developed and administered to girls and boys in grades 7 and 8 from five predominantly white schools (0-33.33 percent black), six mixed schools (33.34-66.66 percent blacks), and six predominantly black schools (66.7-100 percent blacks). A total of 2,711 students satisfactorily completed the instrument. Principal component analysis of responses yielded nine distinct factors: Academic, Nature Study, Mechanical Hobby, Biology Experiment, Drug, Cosmology, High Verbal, General Collection, and Environmental. Factor scores were generated for each subject and used as the dependent variable in testing school, race, and sex main effects and interaction effects using the Finn MANOVA technique. In general, the white children tended to excel in their expressed participation in those activities inspired by inquiry and experimentation, while black pupils tended to excel in academic types of activities. Unexpectedly, in this sample, girls expressed a high degree of participation in activities around several factors and excelled in a few compared to the boys. (Author/EB)