Malka Niknamfard

Prof. Adams

In my opinion, Surrounded by Science’s chapter 9 seemed to summarize and epitomize what we have sought to explain this past semester in our Macaulay Seminar. Although we spent most of the semester discussing how informal science learning is perhaps one of the most beneficial ways in which to ignite interest in science, we extrapolated on that idea and discussed how informal science learning is crucial because not only does it spark interest, but it is the driving force that sustains interest from childhood to adulthood.

I thought back to the first assignment we worked on this past semester, which was to interview people of different ages and to see how informal science is present in their lives, even if they may at times not realize it. When conducting my interviews, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only was informal science learning still involved in the lives of the adults that I interviewed, but also that the adults chose their career fields based on interests that had been brought about through an informal learning opportunity that prompted them to pick their future careers. This truly taught me that the interests that people have when they are young have direct impacts on their career and future lifestyles.

Because informal science learning is crucial to the sustenance of interest in science, the establishment of informal science institutions has become a leading source of science education. Through its use of interactivity and hands-on learning, informal science learning that occurs in museums, zoos, aquariums, and science centers has been directly responsible for instilling not only an interest in, but also a true love for science that simply could not be brought about in formal academic settings. Informal science opportunities are crucial in today’s society because they are responsible for igniting interest in scientific topics that most people would otherwise be exposed to via memorization and the study of mere facts that have no application to a person’s daily life. Formal science learning cannot engage individuals by forcing them to memorize facts and simply does not cater to an individual’s interests, and does not sustain a future interest in science in the same way that informal science learning does.