The Salmon Camp Research Team (SCRT) project was created to address the under-representation of Native Americans in information technology (IT) and IT-intensive professions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is partnering with the Native American Youth and Family Association (NAYA) under the renewed National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to strengthen community involvement and work directly with students year round. An SCRT program website is under development with program information and a social networking page
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis AultOregon Museum of Science and Industry
From January - August 2010, the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center's (KAYSC) Podcast Crew worked to develop five video podcasts to supplement the Disease Detectives exhibition. Four of these podcasts focused broadly on infectious diseases and one podcast was an overview of the KAYSC. Funded through a SEPA grant from the National Institute of Health, the podcasts were meant to enhance the Disease Detective exhibition experience and make it accessible to youth ages 12-18 by adding a teen voice Evaluation activities associated with the Podcast Crew began January 2010 and were completed September
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy Grack NelsonGayra OstgaardScience Museum of Minnesota
During Fall 2008, the Science Museum of Minnesota's outreach staff visited schools throughout northern Minnesota to deliver the Energy Connections program. A summative evaluation was carried out to gauge the impact the program had on students' understanding of three of the program's key learning goals. As a result of participating in the Energy Connections program, students will learn that electrical energy can be generated from a variety of sources, which can be either renewable or non-renewable, and can have different environmental consequences/impact. People influence what decisions are
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy Grack NelsonClaire PhilippeScience Museum of Minnesota
User Experience Research Consulting (UXR) conducted a summative evaluation of the NSF-ISE funded project, STEPS (Science Theater Education Programming System). The STEPS project brought together a network of informal science educators and contractors to create an interactive museum theater authoring and presentation system to increase educational capacity for small and large museums across the country. The software package includes an authoring tool for the creation of multimedia science theater productions; a presentation player for displaying the shows to audiences in museum theaters
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jes A. KoepflerUniversity of Colorado, Denver
This study was conducted to document how members of the Design Challenges team currently assist visitors as they engage in engineering design activities as a way of informing the practices of informal technology education at the Museum of Science about the types of scaffolds and supports visitors need when engaging in future engineering design labs in exhibitions. To collect data for this study, educators from the Design Challenges team were observed as they helped visitors complete the Solar Cars activity in Investigate! The Solar Cars activity was not designed as an engineering design lab
MinnAqua, a program of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource's Division of Fish and Wildlife, strives to educate Minnesota's youth about angling and aquatics and increase their interest and participation in angling. A summative evaluation was carried out to examine the effectiveness of MinnAqua clinics in terms of two evaluation questions: (a) To what extent are MinnAqua clinics meeting their goals? and (b) To what extent does participation in MinnAqua clinics increase children's knowledge of angling and aquatic resources as identified by the MinnAqua key concepts? To answer these
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy Grack NelsonMinnesota Department of Natural Resources
Goodman Research Group, Inc. conducted a comprehensive multi-method external evaluation of the first season of the Design Squad TV series and outreach initiative. The broad evaluation goals were to: assess the extent to which children's knowledge, interest, and awareness of engineering increased as a result of watching the Design Squad series, document the implementation of community events resulting form the November 2006 Engineering Summit, and assess the effectiveness of the Afterschool Educators Guide with leaders and students.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peggy VaughanEmilee PressmanIrene GoodmanWGBH
Design Squad, produced by WGBH-Boston (http://www.wgbh.org), premiered on the Public Broadcasting Service in October 2009. Design Squad is a reality television series that encourages kids ages 9-12 years to “show off their smarts as they design and build working solutions for real-world clients—people who are hungry for clever ideas from a new generation of innovators.” Each season, the series culminates in a final episode when the top two scorers compete for a $10,000 college scholarship from the Intel Foundation. The underlying educational goals of Design Squad are to: (1) Increase students'
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum contracted RK&A for the 2006-2010 study The Art of Problem Solving (APS). The APS study was the second of two studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant (the former being the 2003-2005 study Teaching Literacy Through Art) that examined the Guggenheim's long-standing teaching artist in residency program Learning Through Art (LTA). The APS study was designed specifically to determine the effectiveness of the LTA program in teaching problem-solving skills. The APS study measured both
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Overarching evaluation questions focus on continuous improvement, the degree to which the Salmon Camp project achieves its objectives with regards to students' skills and attitudes, as well as implementation and outcome questions. Evaluation activities are designed to probe five major areas: 1. Student Knowledge and Skills. To what extent do students gain experience with digital tools, field research, and workplace skills? 2. Student Attitudes. How are students' attitudes and self-efficacy as science students changing with involvement in Salmon Camp? How are career interests changing or
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis AultOregon Museum of Science and Industry
Overarching evaluation questions focus on continuous improvement, the degree to which the Salmon Camp project achieves it's objectives with regards to students' skills and attitudes, as well as implementation and outcome questions. Evaluation activities are designed to probe five major areas: 1. Student Knowledge and Skills. To what extent do students gain experience with digital tools, field research, and workplace skills? 2. Student Attitudes. How are students' attitudes and self-efficacy as science students changing with involvement in Salmon Camp? How are career interests changing or
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis AultOregon Museum of Science and Industry
Although there is a significant literature documenting the strength of informal science experiences in controlled or specialized settings, such as museums and science-focused youth programs it is not yet clear how best to regularly provide such opportunities in typical after-school programs--ones not established or specifically supported to test or implement grant-funded curricula or STEM approaches under specialized conditions. What's more, the majority of the 6.5 million children enrolled in after-school programs participate in typical programs. This study addressed this gap in the