Learning opportunities during informal science learning to promote understanding of fluids mechanics

This study focuses on existing learning opportunities in designing informal science learning with a specific pedagogical approach. 349 students were selected as the sample of this study, in two STEM activities during international Scout STEM Camporee. This study has successfully developed a module for informal learning activity and conducted a survey to study the learning opportunities. Post and pre-test were conducted. The post-test was conducted to investigate the understanding of science concept during the designing stage with the students’ ability to make inference. Descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation were used as the data analysis methods. The finding shows that most of the students did have an initial idea of science concepts such as buoyancy, density, weight of mini Titanic, and Archimedes’ principle. However, their ability to make inference and observation is weakly correlated and not significant. This study only able to shows that students are capable to produce observations and inferences that differ in nature during informal science learning. As a conclusion, for informal science learning, it is important for educators to consider the outcomes for students’ learning because the opportunities for students to tap into their prior knowledge from self-determination can be easily achieved within this setting. This study proposes important measures during informal science learning environment to maximize the learning opportunities.