The Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech) in San Jose, California proposes to partner with NOAA to integrate Science On a Sphere (SOS) into The Tech's Exploration gallery and to facilitate the development of informal and formal learning programs. Exhibits and programs at The Tech focus on the integration of emerging technologies into hands-on visitor experiences. In 2004, The Tech partnered with NOAA, the Maryland Science Center (MSC), and a consortium of national science centers to explore the potential and effectiveness of SOS as a method of engaging and informing the general public about NOAA-related sciences. Initial testing of SOS at the Maryland Science Center revealed that SOS is a visually compelling and engaging medium for conveying complex scientific information to museum visitors. Ninety-eight percent of visitors tested regarded a facilitated SOS program as a good or excellent experience with strong visitor retention suggesting the potential of SOS as a compelling visitor tool. However, when the experience was not facilitated this retention dropped dramatically. Support from NOAA will enable The Tech to test SOS and NOAA data in a number of formats to determine the most effective ways to utilize this incredible technology. The results of this evaluation will be shared with other museums using SOS to improve its reach in teaching informal audiences and promoting interest in both STEM content and NOAA research. The SOS exhibit will bring together scientists, technologists, informal education specialists, and young users to unlock the educational potential of NOAA's datasets and further NOAA's educational plan. Hands-on experiences using SOS will engage visitors in meaningful explorations of NOAA data. The Tech Museum will make SOS accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and educational levels. All panel text, audio, and captions will be presented in both English and Spanish to allow greater accessibility for local audiences. SOS will provide the programming platform upon which to explore the educational opportunities of this gallery as it illustrates how data collected with remote sensing technologies is helping us understand and make predictions about our dynamic environment and the future of our planet. SOS will illustrate how these data collecting technologies assist us in developing our knowledge about our planet and its solar system.
This article presents some of the challenges faced in developing an interactive exhibit on nanoscience and nanotechnology in Brazil. Presenting a scientific-technological area which is still in formation and which is little known by the population leads to a (re)consideration of the role of museums and science centers in the conformation and consolidation of scientific practice itself. Museographically, the exhibit deals with the challenge of making matter visible in an expression which is distant from the human perception. Some reflections are presented here on the option of musealization
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sandra MurrielloDjana ContierMarcelo Knobel
With support from the National Science Foundation, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Thomas Lucas Productions have produced a planetarium show entitled, Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity. The 20-minute full-motion program uses scientific simulations and data-based animations to illustrate the death of stars and the birth and characteristics of black holes.
Multimedia Research implemented a one-group pretest-posttest summative evaluation focused on appeal to and impact on upper elementary school students. Participating fourth graders (n = 104) and fifth graders (n = 64) were
With support from the National Science Foundation, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Thomas Lucas Productions have produced a planetarium show entitled, Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity. The 20-minute full-motion program uses scientific simulations and data-based animations to illustrate the death of stars and the birth and characteristics of black holes.
Multimedia Research implemented a quasi-experimental separate-sample pretest/posttest summative evaluation to evaluate the show in its natural theater setting. A random sample of 126 adults and teens completed questionnaires
Talk of the Nation: Science Friday is a weekly two-hour listener call-in talk show devoted to the understanding of complex scientific topics and methods. The series is hosted by science correspondent Ira Flatow. With support from the National Science Foundation, Multimedia Research presents the second study of a two-part summative evaluation on the impact of Science Friday on public radio listeners, focusing on the series’ increased emphasis on public understanding of basic research. The evaluation assessed what demographic or background characteristics relate to whether or not one listens to
During the spring of 2006, American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an evaluation study on behalf of WGBH. The purpose of the study was to gather data related to the effectiveness of the FETCH! Activity Guide, which was designed to extend the teachings of a new children’s show, “FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman.” The Activity Guide was developed for after-school program facilitators and other informal science educators to use at their facilities, either in conjunction with the television show or as stand-alone resources. Appendix includes instruments.
This paper details a long-term evolving effort to provide evaluation instruction designed to address specific information needs for selected target groups from a centralized location within a networked environment. Additionally, this paper examines a content design process that focuses on user-centered data-appropriate evaluation methods where the content of the instructional system is comprehensive, organized, and presented for use by library researchers and practitioners in a variety of library settings and situational contexts. Specific examples of web-based evaluation instructional systems
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John SneadCharles McClureJohn BertotPaul Jaeger
This paper presents a summary of each of 10 evaluations conducted of NASA educational programs. The paper begins with a table outlining the titles of the evaluations and who conducted them, the date of the report, the evaluation questions, the evaluation design or methods and brief comments on the quality of each report. After the table each report is considered in more depth through an overview of what the evaluation included as well as a critique of the evaluation questions, methods and findings. The paper concludes with an overall commentary on the set of evaluations.
As the astronomy education community develops, a need has arisen for concrete research and evaluation methodologies, especially within informal educational settings. We propose one such methodology, action evaluation, which attempts to demystify the process of research/evaluation and recruit as partners those who are traditionally left out of this process. Based on the tradition of action research, this methodology incorporates research/evaluation into the fabric of programs and places the researcher/educator in a centralized role. We provide concrete examples of tools that we have used to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Nicholas StroudMeghan GroomeRachel ConnollyKeith Sheppard
This is an announcement to VSA members, Visitor Studies Today! readers and contributors from John Fraser, VSA Vice President for Programs and David Anderson, Chair of the Publication Committee about a new VSA archiving initiative. Through a joint effort of the Visitor Studies Association and the University of Pittsburgh’s UPCLOSE InformalScience.org, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, VSA will now reprint the content of the Visitor Studies Association archive digitally and make these reprints available online and without cost.
To help answer questions about the behavior of participants in human-robot systems, we propose the Cognitive Evaluation of Human-Robot Systems (CEHRS) method based on our work with the Personal Exploration Rover (PER). The CEHRS method consists of six steps: (1) identify all system participants, (2) collect data from all participant groups, including the system’s creators, (3) analyze participant data in light of system-wide goals, (4) answer targeted questions about each participant group to determine the flow of knowledge, information, and influence throughout the system, (5) look for
The Science Museum of Minnesota prototyped interpretive approaches to using an innovative scientific visualization system developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called Science On a Sphere (SOS). SOS is composed of a wide variety of visualizations projected onto a six-foot sphere creating animated, whole-planet views of the Earth, other planets in our solar system, and their moons. Visualizations of the Earth cover topics such as weather, climate, topography, earth system dynamics, and geophysical processes. A challenge of SOS is making the content accessible