Using out-of-school sources to enrich science education

All people learn science from a variety of sources, in a range of different ways, and for a number of different purposes. In other words, the reasons, sources and favoured modes for learning science vary from one individual to the next. There are two different sources of or areas of learning that must be considered in science education – these can be called formal and informal learning. The main features of the two areas are summed up in Table 12.1.