The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History asked Ellen Giusti to evaluate visitor learning in its temporary exhibition, Invasion of the Bloodsuckers: Bedbugs and Beyond! The exhibition, supported by a grant from the SEPA division of the National Institutes of Health, focuses on six blood-feeding species: bedbug, flea, head louse, pubic louse, mosquito and tick. The centerpieces of the exhibition are greatly enlarged, highly detailed models of the six organisms. A text panel with images and information accompanies each model. Two displays contain live animals mosquitos and bedbugs. An
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Ellen GiustiYale Peabody Museum of Natural History
ABSTRACT The Trail of Time is a 4.56 km (2.83 mile) long geologic timeline trail on Grand Canyon's South Rim, designed to give visitors a visceral appreciation for the magnitude of geologic time within the context of Grand Canyon. This summative evaluation was the final stage in a multipart evaluation effort for the Trail of Time project, seeking to answer the question: In what ways and to what extent do visitors develop a greater understanding of and appreciation for deep time and geology based on their experiences along the Trail of Time? To answer this question, the study used a
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Selinda Research Associates, Inc.University of New MexicoGrand Canyon National ParkEric GyllenhaalDeborah PerryDiane WhiteKarl KarlstromLaurie CrosseySteve SemkenMike Williams
The summative evaluation of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Geometry Playground traveling exhibition was a two-year naturalistic study to examine (a) the ways and extent to which the exhibition promoted the practice of spatial reasoning skills, and appreciation for geometry, and (b) its influence on museum professionals' thinking across three venues: the Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA), the Science Museum of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN), and the Don Harrington Discovery Center (Amarillo, TX). The study took place from December 2009 through November 2011 and included five site visits
“The Fabric of the Cosmos” is a special four-hour NOVA series that takes viewers to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture we have ever had of space, time, and the universe. Based on the book of the same title by Columbia University physicist and author Brian Greene, "The Fabric of the Cosmos" explores a world just beneath the surface of our everyday experience that we would hardly recognize a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected. Interweaving provocative theories, experiments, and stories with clear
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Pam CastoriWGBHBecky CarrollLaura Stokes
The Lost Ladybug Project is a citizen science project which, since its inception in 2008, has received contributions of over 13,000 images of ladybug specimens from citizen scientists in North America. Audiences impacted included adult participants (without children), families, and youth (5-12 years old) participating within classrooms or out-of-school groups. Summative evaluation, conducted in 2011, was guided by the following questions: -To what extent has the program achieved its intended science learning impacts? -How are learning outcomes different for different types of participants?
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Jessica SicklerTammy Messick CherryCornell University
Led by KQED in Northern California, a network of seven public media organizations around the country joined to form the QUEST Regional Hubs Collaborative project. Funded with grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), this project aimed to achieve the adaptation of a successful cross-platform media production model and the creation of a content-sharing collaborative. Rockman et al (REA), an educational research and evaluation firm in San Francisco, served as the external evaluator to document the development of both the regional
The Luce Foundation Center (LFC) of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (hereafter, American Art or the Museum) ran an alternate reality game (ARG) titled PHEON (http://pheon.org/, http://apps.facebook.com/playpheon/register/) from September 2010 through August 2011. The game built upon the success of the Museum's previous ARG, Ghosts of a Chance (GOAC; http://ghostsofachance.com/; Goodlander, 2009), and was intended to increase familiarity with the Museum's collections, programs, and resources; highlight connections between the Museum and its collections with peoples' lives; and attract new
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Jes KoepflerSmithsonian American Art Museum
The Luce Foundation Center (LFC) of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (hearafter, American Art or the Museum) ran an alternate reality game (ARG) titled PHEON as an online game application on Facebook from October 2010 through September 2011. The game built upon the success of the Museum's previous ARG, Ghosts of a Chance (GOAC; Goodlander, 2009). In the Facebook game, players accepted missions inspired by the Museum's collections, completed them in the real world, and uploaded evidence in order to win points and progress through the game. Despite an established audience of GOAC players
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Jes A. KoepflerSmithsonian American Art Museum
The Firefly Watch project is a citizen science program where a network of volunteers across the country observe and collect data on fireflies. Participants are able to post their results to the project website, where they can share aspects of their own experiences and learn about sightings in other locations. To evaluate this program, a brief survey was conducted that probed for participant interactions with the program, learning due to project involvement and areas for potential project growth.The attached file includes slides from the PowerPoint presentation that outline the key findings
Carl Batt of Cornell University is a Discovery Corps Senior Fellow for the 2007-2008 academic year. the natural ability of bacterial surface-layer proteins to self-assemble into two-dimensional, nanoscale arrays. These biological arrays will be exploited to produce a variety of nanoscale structures, including silicon nano pillars, which have potential use in new optical and electronic devices. Batt will use the scientific discoveries arising from his research to expand outreach to the public through interactive, traveling museum exhibits and to develop improved models for understanding and describing nanoscale phenomena. The goals of the project include the development of the "Chronicles of a Science Experiment," which will provide the public with a view of the evolution of a science project over time. This Discovery Corps Senior Fellowship is supported by the Division of Chemistry and the Informal Science Education (ISE) program of the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (EHR/DRL). The Discovery Corps Fellowship Program seeks new postdoctoral and professional development models that combine research expertise with professional service. Discovery Corps Fellows leverage their research expertise through projects that address areas of national need.
The Institute for Learning Innovation, in collaboration with Mary Miss Studio and the Institute for Urban Design, is conducting an exploratory research and development project on sustainable practices related to the built infrastructure of New York City. The work will (1) pilot test and study new interpretive strategies for urban "place-based" public learning experiences that focus pedestrians' attention on a city's ecology and existing built sustainability infrastructure; (2) engage urban design professionals and STEM researchers to explore how these new strategies have the potential to transform how urban design fields inform, dialog and interact with the public about sustainable urban design and planning; and (3) assess the effectiveness of these public interpretation programs on STEM learning beyond traditional Informal Science Learning Environments (ISEs) such as science museums. Project participants also include faculty from the City College of NY Graduate Program in Urban Design, STEM faculty from Columbia University, and staff of the Provisions Library in Washington, D.C. The project is an early phase of the "City as Living Laboratory" initiative that can leverage the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Urban Design Week program in New York City scheduled to occur September 15 - 20, 2011. This request to NSF adds an additional track to the process to specifically focus on STEM learning and urban sustainability. From the promotional materials: "The Institute for Urban Design is currently preparing for the first annual Urban Design Week, a public festival created to engage New Yorkers in the fascinating and complex issues of the public realm and celebrate the city's exceptional urbanity. Through a rich roster of charettes, summits, installations, film screenings, exhibitions, and tours, Urban Design Week will draw in citizens from every borough and walk of life and highlight the idea that cities are made by collective effort, and that each of us can be a part of that great endeavor." The project goal is to generate new models for public engagement with science in the city environment and to explore how urban designers and planners, as they design for sustainability, can more effectively collaborate with STEM researchers and with the public. The project has both research and programmatic deliverables. Research activities include: Public Audiences: observational study of pedestrians in the installation environment; intercept surveys of the public about their experiences with the streetscape installations. Professional Audiences: pre-installation surveys on the role of public space science interpretation for altering public discourse about urban planning and sustainable cities; focus group assessment of professionals' experiences with observing public interactions with the installations; online delayed- post experience survey on learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, attitude, motivation and anticipated impacts on professional practices; analysis of blog postings and public media surrounding the installation; survey of attendees at an ISE forum on the project, its goals, outcomes and potential for future developments. Programmatic deliverables include: a workshop that engages urban design students in the development of experimental streetscape installations; a pilot installation on streets in the City College of NY (consistent with approvals already received by NYC Dept. of Transportation); a City as Living Laboratory art-science workshop for Urban Design Week professionals to highlight possible benefits of inter-disciplinary collaboration; a panel discussion around new forms of citizen engagement through a "city as a science learning environment"; a forum specifically for ISE professionals to explore the research findings and potential for use as a strategy to increase science learning in city places.
This Pathways Project connects rural, underserved youth and families in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho to STEM concepts important in sustainable building design. The project is a collaboration of the Palouse Discovery Science Center (Pullman, WA), Washington State University and University of Idaho, working in partnership with rural community organizations and businesses. The deliverables include: 1) interactive exhibit prototype activities, 2) a team cooperative learning problem-solving challenge, and (3) take-home materials to encourage participants to use what they have learned to investigate ways to make their homes more energy-efficient and sustainable. The project introduces youth and families to the traditionally difficult physics concept of thermal energy, particularly as it relates to sustainable building design. Participants explore how building materials and their properties can be used to control all three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. The interactive exhibit prototypes are coupled with an Energy Efficient Engineering Challenge in which participants, working in cooperative learning teams, use information learned from the exhibit prototype activities to retrofit a model house, improving its energy efficiency. The project components are piloted at the Palouse Discovery Science Center, and then travel to three underserved rural/tribal communities in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Front-end and formative evaluation studies will demonstrate whether this model advances participant understanding of and interest in STEM topics and careers. The project will yield information about ways that other ISE practitioners can effectively incorporate cooperative learning strategies in informal settings to improve the transferability of knowledge gained from exhibits to real-world problem-solving challenges, especially for rural and underserved audiences. This project will also provide the ISE field with: 1) a model for increasing the capacity of small, rural science centers to form collaborative regional networks that draw on previously unused resources in their communities and provide more effective outreach to the underrepresented populations they serve, and 2) a model for coupling cooperative learning with outreach exhibits, providing richer experiences of active engagement.