**1. Introduction**

In the twenty-first century, the demand for large scale human capital workforce based on scientific knowledge is rising especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

(STEM)-related carriers. Innovative societies need people who are equipped with scientific knowledge and competencies. Therefore, STEM education has become extremely important in today's world in order to produce STEM literate students who are capable of identifying, applying and integrating STEM concept in understanding complex problems and able to generate innovation to solve the problems [1].

All societies in the world have ways to educate their people because education has always played a very important role in the development of a society, in which it can affect selfdevelopment, can improve living standards, shape the future and also develop human capital. Moreover, the importance of educational qualifications increases drastically as the number of low-skilled jobs in the employment market nowadays decreases. Malaysia, a developing country in the twenty-first century, is constantly working to improve the level of STEM education among its people including marginalised students. Efforts to raise the level of education among marginalised children in Malaysia have always been given serious consideration. This is to ensure they become full participants that are capable of utilising the knowledge and skills that can contribute to the society. Through education, individual's gap can be reduced and the level of competence among students can also be increased [2].

The rapid development taking place in Malaysia has opened up opportunities to the process of modernization and also access to education, especially for marginalised groups that are still considered backward. Therefore, marginalised children should move forward and adapt themselves in this new era through STEM education so that they will not be left behind when compared with other communities. In addition, it also provides marginalised children for a future that requires knowledge and application skills in a highly competitive job [3] in STEM-related carriers. Hence, factors that affect and contribute to learning process among marginalised children especially in science learning should be identified and studied so that a nation of high competence and high achievers in the field of STEM can be realised.

In recent years, studies have conducted on the affective domain in learning such as motivation as well as cognitive domain that focuses on knowledge learned in school [4]. Motivation is a pre-requisite and co-requisite for effective learning [5] and is said to have influence and impact on children learning outcomes [6]. Furthermore, the importance of motivation in learning has been studied extensively in education [4, 6–12] and has been widely recognised. This research focuses on intrinsic motivation because it was found to be very relevant and also one of the main factors affecting the academic achievement of learners [13–15] and regularly reviewed in academic achievement [16, 17]. According to Ref. [18], intrinsic motivation arises from the individual needs to achieve a certain level of competence. In addition, it involves fun in the learning process at school [13].

In addition to intrinsic motivation, conducive learning environment is also a very important factor in ensuring effective learning process among marginalised children. According to Ref. [19], marginalised children love learning activities that involve environment as they have deep feeling for the environment. Conducive and comfortable learning environment in school will lead to the enactment of meaningful learning among them. Therefore, the authors have initiated an innovation instructional strategy with the application and implementation of activities based on the environment in the process of the teaching and learning (T&L) science. Intervention that can enhance the level of science achievement and intrinsic motivation of marginalised children in primary schools in needed. With this, Learning Outside Classroom (LOC) primary science module has been developed as a mechanism to accomplish the desired goals. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of LOC primary science module in enhancing science academic achievement and intrinsic motivation of marginalised children.

(STEM)-related carriers. Innovative societies need people who are equipped with scientific knowledge and competencies. Therefore, STEM education has become extremely important in today's world in order to produce STEM literate students who are capable of identifying, applying and integrating STEM concept in understanding complex problems and able to gen-

All societies in the world have ways to educate their people because education has always played a very important role in the development of a society, in which it can affect selfdevelopment, can improve living standards, shape the future and also develop human capital. Moreover, the importance of educational qualifications increases drastically as the number of low-skilled jobs in the employment market nowadays decreases. Malaysia, a developing country in the twenty-first century, is constantly working to improve the level of STEM education among its people including marginalised students. Efforts to raise the level of education among marginalised children in Malaysia have always been given serious consideration. This is to ensure they become full participants that are capable of utilising the knowledge and skills that can contribute to the society. Through education, individual's gap can be reduced and the level of competence among students can also be

The rapid development taking place in Malaysia has opened up opportunities to the process of modernization and also access to education, especially for marginalised groups that are still considered backward. Therefore, marginalised children should move forward and adapt themselves in this new era through STEM education so that they will not be left behind when compared with other communities. In addition, it also provides marginalised children for a future that requires knowledge and application skills in a highly competitive job [3] in STEM-related carriers. Hence, factors that affect and contribute to learning process among marginalised children especially in science learning should be identified and studied so that a nation of high competence and high achievers in the field of STEM can be

In recent years, studies have conducted on the affective domain in learning such as motivation as well as cognitive domain that focuses on knowledge learned in school [4]. Motivation is a pre-requisite and co-requisite for effective learning [5] and is said to have influence and impact on children learning outcomes [6]. Furthermore, the importance of motivation in learning has been studied extensively in education [4, 6–12] and has been widely recognised. This research focuses on intrinsic motivation because it was found to be very relevant and also one of the main factors affecting the academic achievement of learners [13–15] and regularly reviewed in academic achievement [16, 17]. According to Ref. [18], intrinsic motivation arises from the individual needs to achieve a certain level of competence. In addition, it involves fun

In addition to intrinsic motivation, conducive learning environment is also a very important factor in ensuring effective learning process among marginalised children. According to Ref. [19], marginalised children love learning activities that involve environment as they have deep feeling for the environment. Conducive and comfortable learning environment in school will lead to the enactment of meaningful learning among them. Therefore, the authors

erate innovation to solve the problems [1].

58 Science Education - Research and New Technologies

increased [2].

realised.

in the learning process at school [13].
