Lifelong Science Learning for Adults: The Role of Free-Choice Experiences

Abstract

Science learning is increasingly a lifelong, self-directed process, dominated by out-of-school, free-choice learning experiences. This chapter discusses the scope and scale of that learning across a range of informal contexts – museums, zoos and aquariums; broadcast media such as television and radio; hobby groups; electronic media such as social networks, games, podcasts and the Internet. As the where, when and with whom of science learning continue to change so too must the strategies for measuring and studying the public’s engagement with science. Suggestions for new approaches are offered.