This is the final evaluation report on the Laurel Clark Earth Camp Experience, a multi-component program to incorporate NASA satellite data into summer field programs for teens, environmental and water education for teachers, environmental after-school clubs and Earth Science exhibits at the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum.
Beginning in autumn 2011, Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology (EDC|CCT) worked closely with Iridescent to evaluate the impact of its Family Science after-school program on its participants and partners.1 Between September 2011 and April 2015, Iridescent held six series of five-week programs in New York and Los Angeles at nine different school and museum sites. The program activities centered on “design challenges” that introduced families to the engineering design process and supported the development of curiosity, creativity, and persistence. These five-week
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the world's largest experimental facilities, where thousands of scientists and engineers from over 100 countries collaborate to shed new light on the workings of our universe. As LHC research, such as the discovery of the Higgs boson, continues to hit the news in future years, it will be important for educators in informal science institutions to understand how to engage their visiting public's interests and curiosities and shape their understanding regarding this leading edge research. Funded by
This evaluation study examined Field Museum visitors' understandings of the research science that goes on behind-the-scenes. We conducted over 125 depth interviews with visitors, members, and museum staff, for a total of approximately 50 contact hours with respondents from May - September, 1995
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Deborah L. Perry, Ph.D.Emily ForlandThe Field Museum
The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance is developing Sugar from the Sun, a project consisting of a 5,400-square-foot exhibition intended to help children and their families explore photosynthesis. This immersive exhibition will use real plants to delve into the process that plants use to manufacture sugar (food energy) from the sun (light energy). Selinda Research Associates (SRA) conducted a front-end evaluation as part of the exhibit development process. The first phase examined what was known in the research literature about the public's understanding of photosynthesis and also about
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cecilia GaribayJane SchaeferBeth ChangGarfield Park Conservatory
The Yellowstone Park Foundation is partnering with Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to develop and build a visitor education center at Old Faithful. Selinda Research Associates (SRA) worked with staff from Yellowstone's Division of Interpretation to plan and conduct a front-end evaluation of the exhibits for the new center. The evaluation was grounded in naturalistic methodology and used a variety of methods to triangulate on park visitors understanding of and reactions to a variety of issues. These methods included in-depth interviews with visitors both before and after their visits and card
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG), a research firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts specializing in program evaluation, has been conducting external evaluation of ZOOM for WGBH-TV Boston since 1998. GRG's Season VI evaluation comprised a pilot test to investigate the effectiveness of the new online ZOOMSCITM TRAINING: LEARN TO LEAD SCIENCE ACTIVITIES (ZOOMsci Training), a self-directed, online tutorial designed to help afterschool educators learn how to lead hands-on science activities with kids ages 8 to 11. The goal of the training is to motivate leaders, help them develop science-teaching
This survey was designed to assess preservice teachers' perceptions of how their mentoring in science teaching has influenced their ability to teach science. The tool measures personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modeling, and feedback as factors that comprise beneficial mentoring for science teachers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peter HudsonKeith SkampLyndon Brooks
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of the design and interpretation presented in four conservatory rooms—Rare and Endangered Species, Plant Adaptations, Medicinal Plants, and Garden Primeval. Two rooms were quite small and the other two rooms were larger. Each room was designed to support a theme and included a variety of signage to support the theme (e.g., plant ID signs, ephemeral signs, thematic signs). Findings from this study will be used in part to inform a new interpretive strategy for the Garden. How did we
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of proposed “Context Clues.” A Context Clue is an interpretive strategy that uses images, product samples or other objects, and interpretive text to assist visitors in connecting to the big idea: plants are important to people. How did we approach this study? The overall purpose of the evaluation was to determine how to best use Context Clues to communicate the relationship between plants and people. Therefore, RK&A interviewed 40 walk-in visitors who experienced three Context Clues in
The Robert R. McCormick Foundation contracted RK&A to conduct a formative evaluation of the Freedom Express mobile museum program to assess the degree to which the program supports students toward the achievement of stated civic engagement-related outcomes. How did we approach this study? The evaluation was designed to explore the extent to which students demonstrate desired outcomes after experiencing the Freedom Express program and to identify the extent to which teachers value and recognize the benefits of the program. To capture diverse perspectives and produce reliable data, RK&A utilized
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Randi Korn
Living Liquid is an exhibit cluster focused on the charismatic microfauna and flora of the San Francisco Bay and the larger oceans, and is the first in an series of experiments to create a new marine life area in the East Gallery at the Piers. This formative evaluation examines what visitors found interesting and how they perceived the environment of the exhibit collection. Appendix includes interview protocol.