In times of increasing digitalization and technological advancement, STEM education can be considered a pivotal element in preparing students for their future lives. Out-of-school learning opportunities such as science outreach labs (SOL), have proven to be influential in fostering interest in STEM and enhancing STEM education. A new approach is the development of learning opportunities in existing leisure spaces with a “mobile science outreach lab” (MSOL) in addition to the traditional SOLs. The design and establishment of these MSOL, that should served as a possibility of leisure activities for young people, is discussed in the present paper.

As part of the “MINT4.OWL” project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), different courses are offered, which offer children and young people between the ages of 10 to 16, the opportunity to explore technical topics like 3D printing and robotics. Those courses take place in local communities in rural areas close to Paderborn University (e.g. libraries, youth centres or museums) and can easily be accessed by students in their leisure time. Content, methods and materials as well as the course instructors are organized in cooperation with the “coolMINT.paderborn”. The courses originally developed for the SOL “coolMINT.paderborn” thus for school groups are adopted for the MSOL as leisure learning opportunities. To identify factors on how to adopt the courses a preliminary investigation is conducted, comparing intrinsic motivation of students’ participation in either SOL courses (in the coolMINT.paderborn, where whole classes can experiment in a realistic setting) and MSOL courses (where the focus is on voluntary participation in rural areas). The present study is conducted from October 2023 to June 2024 using pencil-and-paper questionnaires based on the “Kurzskala intrinsischer Motivation” from Wilde (2009). This short scale is for measuring intrinsic motivation, defined as the pursuit of an activity for its inherent satisfaction. The scale draws upon the theoretical framework of Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory. In total n=331 children and young people participated in the study, n=140 take part in a SOL-course and n=191 in a MSOL-course. The overarching research question guiding this study is as follows: “Are there differences between different subgroups in terms of their intrinsic motivation when participating in the (M)SOL-courses?” The statistical evaluation of the data is conducted using multivariate variance analyses. For the analysis, various subgroups are formed, for example according to school type, reason for participation, previous experience and course content. This enables the determination of the effectiveness to date and the adaptation of the courses for new target groups.

Keywords: Science outreach labs, leisure activities, intrinsic motivation.