This report presents the findings of the summative evaluation of the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Big Back Yard (BBY), with a specific focus on Earthscapes Miniature Golf. Mary McEathron, Amy Grack, and Stacey Grimes, graduate students in the Evaluation Studies program at the University of Minnesota, carried out the evaluation during the summer of 2004. The purposes of the evaluation were to understand visitors’ experiences in the Big Back Yard and the quality of awareness or understanding acquired as a result of that experience. The evaluation was conducted to answer the following evaluation
This paper examines how students, teachers, and parents evaluate residential fieldwork courses. As in prior research, findings from questionnaire data indicate that fieldwork effects social, affective, and behavioural learning. More surprisingly, focus group interviews captured increases in cognitive learning as well. This paper underscores the value of out-of-school experiences, particularly for students from under-resourced backgrounds.
NOVA Labs (www.pbs.org/nova/labs) is a web-based platform designed for use by educators, students, and teens to engage learners with authentic data, processes, and tools of working scientists. The present evaluation study sought to investigate the outcomes achieved by users of the third NOVA Labs platform developed: Cloud Lab. The intended outcomes identified for student users were that they would: • Be able to successfully work with the real data provided in the Cloud Lab; • Demonstrate ability to interpret and use scientific data and tools; • Engage with real scientific data through the
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. It describes a project that will expand the functions and applications of FieldScope, a web-based science information portal currently supported by the National Geographic Society (NGS). The goal is to create a single, powerful infrastructure for Public Participation in Science Research (PPSR) projects that any organization can use to create their own project and support their own community of participants.
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National Geographic SocietyMary Ford
This final report summarizes the findings from three summative evaluation activities conducted by Serrell & Associates and the Oakland Museum of California with visitors to the newly renovated, reinstalled, and reinterpreted Gallery of California Natural Sciences in April and July 2014: the stay-time study, the cued questionnaire study, and the personal connections study.
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Serrell & AssociatesBeverly SerrellMary T. Faria
The Gallery of California Natural Sciences hosted four preview events before officially opening all sections. The target audiences for the evaluation of developing exhibits were Members and the general public with a focus on families. Researchers collected qualitative data in response to prototypes and developing exhibits for the Introduction and Oakland Sections, as well as for the developing Now and Then and Coastal Issues Lounges, and for the prototyping of live gallery animations. An exit survey was also administered to capture narrative, qualitative responses to visitors’ experience of
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Oakland Museum of CaliforniaMary T. Faria
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. The project creates a STEM ecosystem in a severely under-resourced urban community. The Chicago Zoological Society, which operates Brookfield Zoo, is expanding a community partnership with Eden Place Nature Center in Chicago’s Fuller Park Neighborhood and offering a full suite of environmental science learning opportunities for teachers, youth, families, and adults. A research component is led by the University of Illinois at Chicago.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. It describes a project created to design, develop, implement, research, and evaluate a cyberlaboratory in a museum setting.
This is an overview of audience research and evaluation pertaining to the exhibition "Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond". The process of investigating the perceptions of audiences and visitors was mostly designed to inform the interpretive planning process. Then, after the exhibit opened to the public in late October 2010, the intent was to describe and assess the experiences of visitors. Ten audience/visitor studies were conducted over a seven-year period, five of which were designed to inform the planning process and five of which were conducted after the exhibition opened to
The research presented in this report was the tenth and final study in a multi-phase evaluation plan for “Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond,” an exhibition created by the Louisiana State Museum and installed at the Presbytere building. The exhibition opened in October 2010; a remedial evaluation was conducted in November 2010; the summative evaluation was conducted in the spring and summer of 2011; preparations for this longitudinal study began in the fall of 2011, the telephone interviews were conducted in the spring of 2013. Results from this analysis indicate that “Living With
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Louisiana State MuseumJeff HaywardJolene Hart
The purpose of this Summative Evaluation was to assess visitors’ use and perceptions of ‘Living with Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond’ at the Louisiana State Museum (LSM) as an informal science experience. The exhibition is distinctive in that it is presented in a museum which has been primarily focused on history. The overall experience, affective impact and learning were evaluated for visitors leaving the exhibition. More specific questions of science learning were evaluated in mini-studies in Room 3. This report also examines the degree to which emotion affects informal learning in the museum
Youth Action Crews map the youth development programs and places in their neighborhoods in order to raise public awareness of the opportunities—and of where such opportunities don’t exist.