This research aimed to generate evidence-based recommendations for strengthening partnerships between schools and the science community to support students’ science learning and engagement. It was underpinned by a future-oriented perspective, framed by larger questions about the purpose of science education in the context of a rapidly changing 21st-century world. The report digs beneath assumptions about why learners’ and teachers’ engagement with the science community is considered important, and examines what kinds of approaches and supports might sustain future-oriented science education for New Zealand learners.