Evaluating the Representation of Participants in a Scientific Workshop Held in a Shopping Mall

A Challenge for Attracting a Wide Range of Participants in Terms of Interests and Learning Motivation in Science

Abstract

Previous research has revealed that although participating in informal science education can promote participants' learning motivation for science, it is only effective in attracting those with high motivation for, or interest in, science and technology. In this paper, we conducted a scientific workshop based on a superball scooping game in a shopping mall, in order to test whether such a workshop can attract people with a wide range of interests and levels of motivation. Our findings revealed that this kind of workshop could attract more representative participants in terms of their interests and learning motivation towards science than the previous workshop had.