ABSTRACT
STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach that develops important skills and competencies such as research inquiry, problem solving, critical and creative thinking, entrepreneurship, collaboration, teamwork, and communication. The essay presents a programme that combines formal and informal learning to develop these skills and competencies for students in Singapore. This programme offers informal hands-on workshops, provided by the Science Center Singapore, for 7–10th-grade students, whose formal learning programme is provided by the Ministry of Education. The science centre also provides professional development for the school teachers, links key industry partners to each participating school, and offers country-wide STEM annual competitions for the students. The programme is based on a two-tier structure: a basic level of hands-on workshops and investigations to excite all students and a second level of deeper engagement for developing further STEM skills and competency. Educational research supports the conclusion that informal science programming helped the students increase their enjoyment, interest, and understanding of STEM in everyday life and that it is very important to implement the programme without exams and with plenty of time for the students to play, tinker, discover, and learn. The programme demonstrates that collaboration between informal and formal STEM educators can build deeper self-efficacy and confidence in STEM students by designing activities that build mastery, while providing appropriate scaffolding for students, as they progress through different levels of ability.
