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Evaluation Reports

Front-End, Formative and Summative Evaluations of What’s in a Name?

November 30, 2016 | Exhibitions
‘What’s in a Name’ is a collaboration between Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, the Encyclopedia of Life and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Its goal was to addresses three significant issues: improving public understanding of life on Earth through resources on how scientists describe biodiversity; furthering public understanding of the scientific process, as exemplified by the study of biological species; and creating ways to enable access to the vast amount of data available from museums and libraries. The primary audiences were museum visitors and online users; the materials were also reviewed for use in the K-12 classroom. The project developed four exhibit stations at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, a project web site, and an e-book. Evaluation showed that these outputs increased people’s understanding of how scientists identify and name species and the importance of this process, as well as improved knowledge of the organisms and their relationships. The project’s results are sited within long-term freely available web resources, via the project web site, and EOL and BHL. The e-book is also available via Harvard University’s iTunes account. Appendix includes observation & interview sheets.

TEAM MEMBERS

  • JP Head shot
    Principal Investigator
    Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
  • REVISE logo
    Evaluator
    Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • Citation

    Funders

    IMLS
    Funding Program: Museums for America
    Award Number: MA-10-14-0113-14
    Resource Type: Research and Evaluation Instruments | Interview Protocol | Observation Protocol | Front-End | Formative | Summative
    Discipline: Ecology, forestry, and agriculture | Life science
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals | Evaluators
    Environment Type: Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits

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