ScienceMakers: African Americans and Scientific Innovation Summative Evaluation

November 1, 2011 | Media and Technology, Public Programs

In 2009, The HistoryMakers was awarded a four-year grant from The National Science Foundation (DRL-0917612) to create ScienceMakers: African Americans and Scientific Innovation (ScienceMakers). ScienceMakers builds upon The HistoryMakers’ extant oral history archives by allowing for new interviews with 180 of the nation’s top African American scientists and facilitating dissemination of the information. The overall goal of this endeavor is to increase awareness in the general public of the contributions of African American scientists (i.e., short-term outcomes), thereby ultimately leading to increased participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) (i.e., long-term outcomes). Beginning in June 2012, The HistoryMakers contracted with Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG), an evaluation research firm in Cambridge, MA that specializes in program evaluation, to conduct summative evaluation over five months during the project’s final year. GRG’s research questions focused on assessment of the extent to which the following short-term outcomes, stated in the program logic model, were achieved: -Increased awareness of, and interest in learning more about, the achievements and contributions of minority scientists, among the general public. -Increased awareness of, and interest in learning more about, different STEM-related careers among students. -Increased confidence among STEM professionals, educators, and other adults to discuss STEM careers with students and encourage interests and beliefs about their abilities to pursue a STEM-related career.