PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPING STUDENTS' SCIENTIFIC LITERACY THROUGH NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

For the last few years many researchers have been alarming about the gruesome plummeting of language, mathematics and scientific literacy of the Bulgarian students. To address this problem, the collective effort of all the factors - teachers, pedagogic experts and representatives of the education sphere, are required. The main goal of this paper is to experimentally prove the efficacy of the non-formal educational practices which are used at University for Kids for improvement of the scientific literacy of students aged 12-15. The results from the pedagogical interactions with the students and the empirical data show that the teaching of chemistry, physics and biology, organized within the summer courses (academies) at University for Kids, stimulate the development of scientific literacy at this age group.