Science Skill

I've been trying to find some information on the science skill related to the group science project. My sims' son just aged up to teen. The following day, after school and homework, he went outside and started using his mother's group science project. He was out there for hours, but he had no skill meter and made no progress on the device. Is this normal? Do they have to learn the skill by other means first, before they can get the GSP to work or gain skill from it? Or is something not working as it should?