The STAR Library Education Network: a hands-on learning program for libraries and their communities, (STAR_Net for short) is led by the National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) at the Space Science Institute (PI: Paul Dusenbery). STAR stands for Science-Technology, Activities and Resources. Team members include NCIL staff, the American Library Association (ALA), Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP). STAR_Net is developing two comprehensive, informal education programs: Discover Earth and Discover Tech. The project also includes a comprehensive evaluation plan and a research component that explores how public libraries can serve as a STEM learning center in rural, underserved communities. STAR_Net is supported through a grant from the National Science Foundation. The STAR_Net project includes two traveling library exhibits: Discover Earth: A Century of Change and Discover Tech: Engineers Make a World of Difference. The Discover Earth exhibition features interactive, multimedia displays that allow exhibit visitors to interact with digital information in a dynamic way, encouraging new perspectives on our planet. Discover Tech introduces the many extraordinary ways that engineers solve problems to help people and societies around the world. Similar to a science center experience, visitors and families will be able to explore and tinker with their own engineering solutions. A number of STEM activities and resources will be developed by project staff and by other organizations to help librarians and community partners offer a wide variety of programs for their patrons. Besides the traveling exhibits and programs, STAR_Net also includes library staff training (online and in-person) and a Community of Practice (CoP) for librarians (including non-host librarians) to interact and partner with STEM professionals and organizations. NCI's Kate Haley Goldman and staff from Evaluation and Research Associates are conducting the project's evaluation.
The National Science Festival Network project, also operating as the Science Festival Alliance, is designed to create a sustainable national network of science festivals that engages all facets of the general public in science learning. Science Festivals, clearly distinct from "science fairs", are community-wide activities engaging professional scientists and informal and K-12 educators targeting underrepresented segments of local communities historically underserved by formal or informal STEM educational activities. The initiative builds on previous work in other parts of the world (e.g. Europe, Australasia) and on recent efforts in the U.S. to create science festivals. The target audiences are families, children and youth ages 5-18, adults, professional scientists and educators in K-12 and informal science institutions, and underserved and underrepresented communities. Project partners include the MIT Museum in Cambridge, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The deliverables include annual science festivals in these four cities supported by year-round related activities for K-12 and informal audiences, a partnership network, a web portal, and two national conferences. Ten science festivals will be convened in total over the 3 years of the project, each reaching 15,000 to 60,000 participants per year. STEM content includes earth and space science, oceanography, biological/biomedical science, bioinformatics, and computer, behavioral, aeronautical, nanotechnology, environmental, and nuclear science. An independent evaluator will systematically assess audience participation and perceptions, level/types of science interest stimulated in target groups, growth of partnering support at individual sites, and increasing interactions between ISE and formal K-12 education. A variety of qualitative and quantitative assessments will be designed and utilized. The project has the potential to transform public communication and understanding of science and increase the numbers of youth interested in pursuing science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Loren ThompsonJeremy BabendureBen Wiehe
Soundprint Media Center, Inc. and RLPaul Productions, produced a cross-media package that includes a website (capecosmos.org), radio programs, and museum-based family events related to the 50th anniversary of the Space Program. The project, Out of This World (OOTW), is a program that sought to stimulate interest in science by presenting the little known stories of African-Americans and women who contributed to the U.S. Space program, and to provide historical context for the scope and reach of the nascent aerospace science program. Through radio documentaries and collaborations with science centers and museums, including the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), OOTW broke new ground in developing an integrated media project that reached different audiences. The deliverables included: three radio documentaries (; an educational DVD package with 20 video mini-documentaries, curator interviews with space research pioneers and a learning guide; an interactive website that recreates a space mission circa 1961, and a series of live two-way video conferences between NASM and some 14 partner museums and science centers. OOTW used the power of investigative journalism and the reach of public radio and local science museums to connect with adults and school-age children, to cut across demographic categories, and to include a significant number of minority and at-risk children.
In partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, The Franklin Institute Science Museum will develop, test, and pilot an exportable and replicable cyberlearning exhibit using two cutting edge technologies: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). The exhibit's conceptualization is anchored in the learning research vision of the NSF-funded workshop Cyberinfrastructure for Education and Learning for the Future (Computing Research Association, 2005). The incorporation of VR and AR technologies into the Franklin Institute's electricity and Earth science exhibits is an innovation of traditional approaches to hands-on learning and will improve the quality of the learning experience for the primary audience of families with children and elementary school groups. The project has implications for future exhibit development and more broadly, will provide new research on learning on how to incorporate cyberlearning efforts into traditional exhibits. Fifteen participating exhibit developers across the ISE field will assist in the evaluation of the new exhibit; receive training on the design and development of VR and AR exhibits for their institutions; and receive full access to the exhibit's new software for implementation at their informal learning sites. The technology applications will be developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center--leaders in the field in Virtual Reality design and development. Front-end and formative evaluation will be overseen internally by the Franklin Institute. The Institute for Learning Innovation will conduct the summative evaluation. Research will be conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education on the effects of AR and VR technologies on exhibit learning.
Math off the Shelf (MotS) was designed to help those who work in public libraries put math into what they do with grades K-6 children and their families. Public libraries exist in virtually every community in the nation, and increasingly, families rely on them as a free, safe place for children to spend time in the absence of other care. As such, they are an ideal venue for reaching a large and diverse population with math. MotS has: (1) developed research-based English/Spanish materials for informal educators working in public libraries, available for free online (2) supported implementation and institutionalization at libraries across the nation (3) engaged informal educators working in libraries in conducting outreach via state and national library association meetings, webinars, and community and youth agencies (4) conducted evaluation on project impact, as described in the summative evaluation report attached. Dissemination to professional communities will constitute the remaining project work. External evaluation, conducted by Char Associates, identified dramatic changes in attitudes about math and its role in the library, in the amount of math that librarians offer to children and families, and in librarians' communication about math with patrons and peers. Development partners include the library systems of Queens NY, San Jose CA, St Louis MO, Westchester County NY, and dozens of libraries in AZ, CT, FL, and MA.
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of the design and interpretation presented in four conservatory rooms—Rare and Endangered Species, Plant Adaptations, Medicinal Plants, and Garden Primeval. Two rooms were quite small and the other two rooms were larger. Each room was designed to support a theme and included a variety of signage to support the theme (e.g., plant ID signs, ephemeral signs, thematic signs). Findings from this study will be used in part to inform a new interpretive strategy for the Garden. How did we
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of proposed “Context Clues.” A Context Clue is an interpretive strategy that uses images, product samples or other objects, and interpretive text to assist visitors in connecting to the big idea: plants are important to people. How did we approach this study? The overall purpose of the evaluation was to determine how to best use Context Clues to communicate the relationship between plants and people. Therefore, RK&A interviewed 40 walk-in visitors who experienced three Context Clues in
This presentation outlines the front-end and formative evaluation of the redesigned Ancient Worlds Gallery at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), set to open in the spring of 2015. The gallery will contain artifacts, props, and interactives pertaining to ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. The previous MPM exhibition featuring these civilizations was presented chronologically; for this new gallery, six themes have been selected to guide the visitor experience: construction, communion, community, communication, commerce, and conflict. When affiliated with the Institute for
This evaluation provides feedback from a tracking and timing study from the project "Seeing: The Interaction of Physiology, Culture, and Technology" at the Exploratorium. The evaluation concludes that Seeing is a large, complex collection of loosely related exhibit elements that attract and hold visitors’ attention well, but not exceptionally well. Yet, given the size and scope of the exhibits, a longer average time and more stops would not be expected. The individual interactive elements range from many that are modestly engaging, to some that are highly engaging, with a few exceptionally
This evaluation reports on the Mission: Solar System project, a 2-year project funded by NASA. The goal of the Mission: Solar System was to create a collection of resources that integrates digital media with hands-on science and engineering activities to support kids’ exploration in formal and informal education settings. Our goal in creating the resources were: For youth: (1) Provide opportunities to use science, technology, engineering, and math to solve challenges related to exploring our solar system, (2) Build and hone critical thinking, problem-solving, and design process skills, (3)
In 2010 EarthSky Communications Inc. was awarded a broad implementation grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled Proyecto de Implementacion Amplia EarthSky en Español (EarthSky in Spanish Broad Implementation Project). In partnership with the Spanish media company Univision Communications Inc. and a national Advisory Committee of Hispanic scientists, educators, and media experts, EarthSky proposed to present science information and scientist interviews to Spanish-preferring U.S. Hispanics via short video programs distributed on television and the Internet. Under the Broad
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Knight Williams Inc.Valerie Knight-WilliamsDeborah ByrdRachel TeelDivan WilliamsRoxana HernandezEric AndersonGabriel SimmonsSauleh Rahbari
This report includes six separate formative evaluations conducted to inform the design and development of the deliverables for the 3D Visualization Tools for Enhancing Awareness, Understanding and Stewardship of Freshwater Ecosystems project. Deliverables were tested with both students and general visitor groups, with a focus on groups including late elementary and middle school children. Many different components were tested, including prototype versions of 3D visualizations, high-tech interactive experiences, apps on tablets and phones, and table top exhibits. Results are reported in each of