Informal Learning Environment: Summer Outdoor Science Experience

Mamta Singh-Corresponding^1,

¹Department of Sciences, Martin University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Cite this paper

Mamta Singh-Corresponding. Informal Learning Environment: Summer Outdoor Science Experience. American Journal of Educational Research. 2014; 2(3):167-172. doi: 10.12691/EDUCATION-2-3-10

Abstract

The Spring Mill State Park field trip was organized though university-community partnership in the summer of 2011 to expose students to outdoor learning environment. Informal Learning in outdoor environment, like all learning, can be categorized into the domains of concept knowledge, how students view themselves as learners, and the skills they require to engage in the activities of scientists. The purpose of this field trip was to give students outdoor science experience, to expose them to science learning environment outside the laboratory setting. Sixty-five, third-fifth grade students along with their parents participated in the field trip and completed the survey response. Results suggested that 49.15% student participants indicated that they have never visited a state park before this field trip. 90% of student participants indicated that the Spring Mill State Park field trip was a great experience for them. 50% student participants indicated that the Nature Center activity was their most favorite activity. 38.3% student participants indicated that they have never seen a space capsule or space suite before this field trip. Furthermore, Pearson's Chi-squared test of independence was conducted to test the hypothesis if the learning attitudes were different between male and female student participants. Free statistical software “R” version 3.0.2 (2013) was used to analyze the data. The results suggested that as the p-value was greater than the .05 significance level, the null hypothesis was not rejected that the male participants’ response to all learning attitude questions was independent of female students.

Keywords

informal learning, Chi-square test, contextual model, Spring Mill State Park

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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