The goal of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a middle school science curriculum designed to inspire students to think about science through studying the patterns of humans. The curriculum focuses on human behavior, evolution, ecology, and performance and is based on the notion that pattern recognition is highly correlated with the ability to succeed in school type learning tasks. The effectiveness of the curriculum was determined by using an instrument developed to measure the self-efficacy of young adolescents to recognize patterns in the natural world. Results show that the ability to recognize patterns does not seem to be equal in all learners and is a skill that can be improved through training. The research results also indicated an unexpected difference in pattern recognition between genders and suggests that relating science to people patterns could contribute to encouraging higher female interest in science. The historical significance of patterns and their recognition in science is also discussed. (DDR)