This observational framework can be used with different group types (e.g. family, school group, adult couple, individual, etc.) and across diverse settings such as with public program audiences, camps, or guests at animal exhibits. The framework includes expressions of empathy and related emotions, such as curiosity or appreciation.
We have created an instrument to measure the prevalance of various motivations in a population of volunteers in an online citizen science project. Our project is Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org), a collection of citizen science projects that have grown out of the Galaxy Zoo website. The instrument is based on a theoretical model of motivation, which is described in the attached document.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jordan RaddickKaren CarneyJason ReedAndrea Lardner
A short literature review in regards to museums, their role within society, and the rise of representation of STEM within them. Taken from my dissertation from the College of Education at University of Illinois at Chicago, defended in 2018.
This is a brief paper that may be useful for professionals looking for additional thoughts on museums and informal science education.
The Year in ISE is a slidedoc designed to track and characterize field growth, change and impact, important publications, and current topics in ISE in 2018. Use it to inform new strategies, find potential collaborators for your projects, and support proposal development. Scope This slidedoc highlights a selection of developments and resources in 2018 that were notable and potentially useful for the informal STEM education field. It is not intended to be comprehensive or exhaustive, nor to provide endorsement. To manage the scope and length, we have focused on meta analyses, consensus reports
This annual report presents an overview of Saint Louis Science Center audience data gathered through a variety of evaluation studies conducted during 2018. This report includes information on the Science Center's general public audience demographics and visitation patterns, gives an overview of visitors' comments about their Science Center experience, summarizes major trends observed in the Science Center's tool for tracking educational programs, and presents highlights from three exhibit evaluations: front-end evaluation for GameXPloration, formative evaluation for augmentations to the
The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (Lemelson) at the National Museum of American History (NMAH) contracted RK&A to conduct a front-end evaluation of Game Changers, a new exhibition that will highlight stories of invention and innovation related to sports. The goals of the study were to identify visitors’ associations with sports and invention and explore their reactions to preliminary exhibition concepts and titles.
How did we approach this study?
RK&A conducted 40 in-depth interviews with walk-in visitors to NMAH. As much as possible, RK&A recruited
Identifying causal relationships is an important aspect of research and evaluation in visitor studies, such as making claims about the learning outcomes of a program or exhibit. Experimental and quasi-experimental approaches are powerful tools for addressing these causal questions. However, these designs are arguably underutilized in visitor studies. In this article, we offer examples of the use of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in science museums to aide investigators interested in expanding their methods toolkit and increasing their ability to make strong causal claims about
In April 2018, FHI 360, under the leadership of Maryann Stimmer and Merle Froschl, convened a meeting of thought leaders in Washington, D.C. to capture a “snapshot” of STEM education. They subsequently conducted additional interviews with more than 50 local and national policy leaders; public and private funders; researchers; PreK-12 and post-secondary educators; parents, and leaders of afterschool programs, science centers and youth-serving organizations. The purpose of this summary report is to identify current trends and gaps to inform research, policy, and practice in order to reinforce
Curiosity is a grant-funding programme from the Wellcome Trust with BBC Children in Need., and it provides funding to help youth organisations develop and deliver inspiring science activities for disadvantaged children and young people. This report looks at the key findings from the 32 projects funded during the first round.
The Round 1 projects were delivered by voluntary and community sector organisations, some of which were in partnership with ISL providers, and offered a variety of science opportunities from surveying local weather to building a green-powered race car. Many projects