Learning about Sustainability in a Non-Formal Laboratory Context for Secondary Level Students

Abstract

This chapter discusses a project of curriculum development for the non-formal educational sector. The project aims at student learning about sustainability issues in a chemistry-related context. For this purpose, non-formal laboratory-based learning environments are developed. The learning environments center round half- or one-day visits of secondary school students in a university laboratory and are networked with the formal school syllabus in chemistry and science education respectively. All modules integrate the non-formal laboratory event about issues of sustainability with teaching materials for preparation and assessment tasks in school to fulfill part of the school curriculum in chemistry or science teaching. This chapter discusses the project of developing respective modules, the structure thereof, and initial findings from their application. The discussion is illustrated by a module on environmental problems connected to the chemistry of the atmosphere, namely climate change, the hole in the ozone layer, and the phenomenon of summer smog.

Experimenting at an outreach science lab versus at school—Differences in students' basic need satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and flow experience

“…In the school treatment, the students conducted the experiments in their regular subject‐specific classrooms at school in a three‐lesson teaching unit consisting of 180 min. Since German schools usually lack access to special laboratory equipment (see Scharfenberg & Bogner, 2013; Garner et al, 2014; Glowinski & Bayrhuber, 2011), we used materials and devices that are normally available in schools and less expensive than those found in a typical laboratory (see Table 3). Coats, gloves, and safety glasses are usually available in schools, but not always in sufficient quantities to equip each student.…”

“…Therefore, research assistants or preservice teachers serving as tutors provide support for the students during the experiments when needed (Euler & Schüttler, 2020; Itzek‐Greulich et al, 2015; Pawek, 2009; Scharfenberg & Bogner, 2013). As the students work in small groups (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004) that are supervised by one tutor each (Pawek, 2009), more frequent support and assistance from supervisors is available (Garner et al, 2014; Scharfenberg & Bogner, 2013). In this non‐formal learning environment (Affeldt et al, 2015; Garner et al, 2014; Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004), the students' learning processes are not usually evaluated or graded by the tutors (Eshach, 2007; Itzek‐Greulich & Vollmer, 2017; Pawek, 2009; Stecher et al, 2018).…”

“…Taken together, the non‐formal environment of an outreach science lab offers unique opportunities for students to experiment together in small groups using laboratory equipment (Affeldt et al, 2015; Euler & Schüttler, 2020; Garner et al, 2014; Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004). Accordingly, the non‐formal laboratory environment is expected to yield better conditions in terms of learning (e.g., Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004) and motivational outcomes (e.g., Euler & Schüttler, 2020; Scharfenberg et al, 2019).…”

“…This support or assistance helps students to perceive a better fit between their skills and the challenges they face (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson, 1995; Vygotsky, 1978) that is depicted in the perception of competence (see Danner & Lonky, 1981; Deci & Ryan, 2000; Jang et al, 2010; Reeve, 2015; Ryan & Deci, 2017). Students at outreach science labs may receive more frequent assistance from their tutors than from their teacher at school (Garner et al, 2014; Pawek, 2009; Scharfenberg & Bogner, 2013) and seek more interaction and collaboration with their peers (see DeWitt & Storksdieck, 2008; Mohr‐Schroeder et al, 2014; Tal & Dallashe, 2019). Therefore, they may experience better conditions for working in their zone of proximal development (Donato, 1994; Vygotsky, 1978) and perceive a closer fit between skills and challenges which is an important condition for the experience of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014) than students at school.…”

“…Second, one of the characteristics that differentiate outreach science labs from schools refers to the physical facilities. Students who visit an outreach science lab can conduct hands‐on experiments with laboratory equipment to deal with topics that can only be discussed theoretically at school due to the material conditions (Euler & Schüttler, 2020; Garner et al, 2014; Goldschmidt & Bogner, 2016; Scharfenberg et al, 2019). While some laboratory equipment could be substituted by alternative equipment that is normally available at schools (see Section 4.4.2 and Table 3), other laboratory equipments such as photometers are not substitutable, as the specific functions of such materials are required to conduct an experiment.…”