Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) conducted a comprehensive multi-method external evaluation of the Design Squad PBS television series and its outreach initiative. Design Squad is a live-action reality television series for 9-12 years-olds that aims to provide hands-on experiences and positive images of engineering through design competitions. The broad evaluation goals were to: 1) assess the extent to which children's knowledge, interest, and awareness of engineering increased as a result of watching the Design Squad series, 2) document the implementation of the community events resulting
Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and Nelvana International, the Award-winning series CYBERCHASE is the only mathematics series for children on American television. Designed for kids ages 8 to 12 and packed with mystery, humor, and action, each episode delivers positive messages about math by teaching concepts in a fun way that kids can understand. To inform the design of a planned major study of children's learning from multiple media (using materials from the mathematics series Cyberchase), a small-scale, quasi-experimental pilot study was conducted with 47 children in the third and fourth
Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and Nelvana International, the Award-winning series CYBERCHASE is the only mathematics series for children on American television. Designed for kids ages 8 to 12 and packed with mystery, humor, and action, each episode delivers positive messages about math by teaching concepts in a fun way that kids can understand. To assess the impact of Cyberchase on children's mathematical problem solving, MediaKidz Research & Consulting conducted summative research using an experimental/control, pretest/posttest design. Participants were 108 third- and fourth-grade
Too Small to See is a 5,000 square-foot interactive traveling museum exhibition designed to provide hands-on nanotechnology science education to youth age 8 to 13 and adults. It debuted at Disney's Epcot and will reach over three million people during a five-year US tour. This evaluation examines the exhibition’s outcomes and impact on increasing visitors’ awareness of, interest in, engagement with, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. An overarching goal is to document the project’s contribution to the portfolio of federally funded Science Technology
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Douglas SpencerTina PhillipsTori AngelottiShane MurphyFred ConnerCornell University
This report is the third annual report summarizing data collected about the overall impact of the Saint Louis Science Center's educational programs on participants.
The 2010 Cyberchase Summer Challenge Outreach initiative was designed to allow local public television stations to develop community-appropriate outreach plans as part of a unique summer launch of a new season of shows for a PBS children's television program. The Cyberchase Summer Challenge was a national initiative; eight stations were selected for a pilot study of best practices related to summer programming. Grantee stations were provided modest funding and material support. RMC's evaluation focused on understanding how public television stations and their outreach partners can build
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Alice ApleyWendy GrahamElizabeth GoldmanThirteen/WNET New York
What motivates kids to take multiple programs at the Minnesota Zoo? What makes Minnesota Zoo programs so comfortable and engaging that some kids just keep coming back? How do these experiences support kids’ interest in animals and wildlife conservation? The Minnesota Zoo (MN Zoo) offers over a dozen educational programs for youth tailored to encourage exploration of “what makes the MN Zoo tick.” After 10 years of programming for hundreds of youth, a cluster of youth return again and again to learn more about animal care, wild wildlife conservation, zoo work, and volunteer opportunities
I-CLEEN, a project led by the Museum of Science of Trento (Italy), has developed and currently manages an information gateway of Earth system science educational resources. The aim of the project is to support Italian science teachers in setting up Earth science student-centred lessons. To do so effectively, the gateway exhibits the following key features: it adopts a bottom – up approach to resource development that relies on strong cooperation between science teachers and professional researchers (who also act as resource referees); it is subject–oriented and enhances the multi- and interdisciplinary traits that characterize geosciences; it embraces the concept of open source, through the technological tools (LifeRay) used and copyright policies adopted. A service usability study was performed after the first launch of the gateway and the results were used to develop the second release, which is currently online. During the preliminary phase of the project, as well as the development and set-up of the gateway, valuable insight was gained in various different fields: On the current situation in geoscience education in Italy – where teachers are encouraged to take up a student-centred approach, experiential education and learning initiatives, but currently opt for academic teaching methods because they lack the support and the tools needed. On the educational resource gateways currently available online, on the materials they provide and on the role of ICT in Earth science education. On the results achieved and the tools developed during previous science communication activities that involved teachers and students in research projects.
Presentation on NSF grant DRL-0813455 (""Inquiry in the Community: Building Science Capacity in Volunteer Leaders"") presented at the CAISE Convening on Professional Development and Informal Science Education, February 2nd, 2012.
Presentation on NSF grant DRL-1114481 (""Full-Scale Development: Science STARS-Nurturing Urban Girls' Identities Through Inquiry-Based Science"") presented at the CAISE Convening on Professional Development and Informal Science Education, February 2nd, 2012.