In August 2009, The Ohio State University at Lima (OSU) received a three-year award from the NSF Division of Research on Learning Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Program for It's About Discovery (IAD). IAD was a partnership between OSU Lima, the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and regional rural schools in Northwest Ohio and North Carolina that equipped teachers to teach new Ford Partnership for Advanced Study (PAS) science curriculum, focused on the theme of Working Towards Sustainability. Ford PAS is focused on transforming teaching and learning
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Rucha LondheOhio State UniversityUniversity of North Carolina GreensboroMarkeisha GrantColleen ManningIrene F Goodman
A multifaceted evaluation study was conducted of the 2,000-square-foot exhibit "Darkened Waters: Profile of an Oil Spill" between September 14 and October 12, 1991, at the Oakland Museum, Natural Sciences Department. "Darkened Waters" is the second generation of an exhibit originally conceived and built by the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska, to provide information and a forum for the environmental impact of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The exhibit will travel to the Smithsonian Institution in December 1991, and will be available to other institutions through the Association of Science
The Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) contracted with Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to evaluate Sphere Corps, a Science on a Sphere program about climate change developed by SMV with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study was designed around RK&A's belief that organizations must be intentional in their practice by continually clarifying purpose, aligning practices and resources to achieve purpose, measuring outcomes, and learning from practice to strengthen ongoing planning and actions. To this end, the Sphere Corps project included five phases
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Science Museum of Virginia
The Corcoran Gallery of Art (the Corcoran) contracted with RK&A to conduct a formative evaluation of its new program initiative, Arts 101. Arts 101 is a partnership among the Corcoran, the Corcoran College of Art, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS) that ignites the power of art to build middle students' capacity to think and act creatively in their lives, their learning, and their community. How did we approach this study? The formative evaluation was the cornerstone of a planning and evaluation project, where the goals were to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Koshland Youth Research Lab (Research Lab) began as an eight-month pilot program funded by the DEK Family Fund at the San Francisco Foundation. The project (initially implemented in 2011) used frontend and formative evaluation to develop the program in line with the needs and interests of its target audience of Hispanic youth. The summative evaluation took place in the last month of the program (December 2011). Researchers from UXR Consulting, Inc. were engaged to conduct all phases of the evaluation. This report includes the interview protocol and surveys used in the study.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jes A. KoepflerKoshland Science Museum
The overall goal of the project was to convene a large-scale, open conference on public participation in scientific research, bringing together science researchers, project leaders, educators, technology specialists, evaluators, and others from across many disciplines to discuss advancing the field of PPSR. The conference included three sessions for posters and conversations, and five plenary sessions of presentations. The meeting culminated in an open meeting to explore strategies for large-scale collaborations to support and advance work across this field of practice, through the development
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joe E HeimlichPublic Participation in Scientific Research
This summative evaluation of Ocean Bound! was conducted by Serrell & Associates for the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY. The main message of the exhibition was: What we do on land not only affects the local environment, it affects the ocean as well. A healthy watershed means a healthier ocean. Four methods were used to collect data: unobtrusive tracking; pre-visit interviews; post-visit questionnaires; and a post-visit activity. Visitor comments and feedback showed strong evidence of understanding the exhibition's main concepts and included references to specific content from 7 of the 11 exhibits
Overall, film viewers and Web site visitors responded positively to the project. Audiences of the film said they were encouraged by and learned the most about the personal stories of amateur astronomers contributing to scientific discovery and were impressed with the visuals presented in the film. Web site visitors consistently liked the design of the site and particularly enjoyed images and tools for viewing the night sky. Study participants said they would encourage further development of the project. They said that while the current design may exclude those who do not already have an
Dimensions of Public Engagement with Science is a project funded through the National Science Foundation's pathways grant. It was designed to explore the relationship between Public Engagement with Science (PES), which involves mutual learning between experts and publics, and Public Understanding of Science (PUS), where information is transferred one-way from experts to publics, within Informal Science Education (ISE). To look at how PES and PUS were being incorporated into current and recent activities, the project team compiled a catalog of case summaries from institutions around the world
The InformalScience.org web site is a resource for researchers working in the field of informal science and provides access to information linking researchers with one another and to member-contributed resources. Through use of the web site resources such as member projects, publications, and evaluation reports, users have opportunities to develop social and human capital. This report analyzes the value of InformalScience.org in supporting participants in the community as they navigate and advance the changing field of informal science education (ISE) research. In addition, we identify
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) is serving as the external evaluator of the NSF-funded Science Festival Alliance (SFA), a collaborative started by the University of California San Diego, the MIT Museum (Cambridge), the University of California San Francisco, and The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia). The early focus of the SFA has been on helping establish and sustain science festivals in each of these four cities. The Alliance's long-term goal is to facilitate the creation of a growing network of festivals and a community of science festival practitioners. This report focuses on the