In February 2012, the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) convened the Twenty-first Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Conference initiated a national, collaborative effort to understand what, how and why diverse publics learn natural history and what role natural history museums can play in their pursuits, as well as to discuss how these findings can translate into widespread practice. Education, exhibits and science staff from natural history settings, as well as researchers and innovators from the informal education field were invited to participate in the four-day Conference, which explored ideas generated from online discussions on ASTC Connect that took place in late 2011-early 2012; Conference attendees were also asked to develop an action plan that supports a new collaborative community and sustains an enhanced research agenda going forward. To determine the effectiveness of the Conference in accomplishing its goals, NMNH engaged Insight Evaluation Services (IES) to conduct an evaluation of the proceedings. Specifically, the evaluation assessed the extent to which the Conference activities: • were well organized and implemented; • encouraged a collaborative effort among participants; • offered participants new opportunities, insights and ideas to take back to their organizations; and • promoted the development of a national research agenda. The evaluation principally sought feedback from Conference attendees; to gauge the extent to which the proceedings also supported field-wide participation in the national conversation, the reactions of non-attendees were solicited, as well. Data for this evaluation were gathered via observations of the Conference proceedings, web-based surveys of Conference attendees and non-attendees, and follow-up telephone interviews with a purposeful sample of attendees.
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