Understanding a community's concerns and informational needs is crucial to conducting and improving environmental health research and literacy initiatives. We hypothesized that analysis of community inquiries over time at a legacy mining site would be an effective method for assessing environmental health literacy efforts and determining whether community concerns were thoroughly addressed. Through a qualitative analysis, we determined community concerns at the time of being listed as a Superfund site. We analyzed how community concerns changed from this starting point over the subsequent
A research project that is only expert-driven may ignore the role of local knowledge in research, often gives low priority to the development of a comprehensive communication strategy to engage the community, and may not deliver the results of the study to the community in an effective way. Objective: To demonstrate how a research program can respond to a community research need, establish a community-academic partnership, and build a co-created citizen science program. Methods: A place-based, community-driven project was designed where academics and community members maintained a reciprocal
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Univeristy of Wisconsin- StoutMonica Ramirez-AndreottaMark BrusseauJanick ArtiolaRaina MaierA Jay Gandolfi
Today, there exists a greater need to connect people to nature. Stemming from exploratory work into useful nature exhibit practices, the Wildlife Conservation Society aims to develop a new family exhibit–Safari Adventure–along with related programs and institutional practices, to better connect the families in our urban community to nature. This Logic Model outlines the impacts, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts for future development of this project, based on our exploratory investigation that included benchmarking trips, advisor and local educator workshops, community focus groups
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wildlife Conservation SocietyLee Patrick
Supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Safari Adventure Advisory Committee Workshop was held on March 11, 2013 at the Bronx Zoo, with the following experts and educators in the fields of children and nature education, hands-on and place-based learning, and digital learning: Professor Louise Chawla, educator David T. Sobel, Urban Assembly high school principal Mark Ossenheimer, researcher Ingrid Erickson, and noted author and environmentalist Richard Louv. Through this workshop, we obtained scholarly input for the purpose of assessing the conceptual
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wildlife Conservation SocietyLee Patrick
This paper was commissioned by the National Research Council Board on Science Education Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) as part of a consensus study on Successful Out-of-School STEM Learning. It explores the role of citizen science in youth STEM education, providing examples of projects developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The project, called Experimenting With Storytelling, involved working with four schools in East London and Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. Each after school session, with elementary school children and their parents, consisted of a cultural story or folktale (the ‘storytelling’ part) which had some science in it followed by an associated practical activity (the ‘experimenting’ part).
Sustainable Nano is the a blog created and written by scientists at the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, a research center located primarily at universities in the midwest that seeks to advance technological innovations that are safe and sustainable by discovering molecular principles that govern nanoparticle-biological interactions, preparing a new and diverse generation of trans-disciplinary scientists, and engaging the general public.
This study, completed by Serrell and Associates in June of 2012, was the first phase in an overall visitor research program at the Natural History Museum of Utah completed. NHMU opened its new facility in November 2011, a spectacular integration of a LEED- certified building anchoring the museum’s significant collections and research programs, and a series of exhibitions designed to illuminate the natural world through the lens of Utah’s human and natural history. The Museum has a total of 51,270 square feet of public interpretive space. With the purpose of setting “clear eyes to the future,”
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Natural History Museum of UtahBecky MenloveBarbara Becker
This tracking and timing study was carried out by Serrell and Associates in April of 2013 as a second phase of the Museum's visitor research program for its new facility and exhibition experiences (see Whole-Museum Stay-Time Study of April 2012 for the first phase of this work). The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) at the Rio Tinto Center opened in November 2011, with a total of 51,270 square feet of public interpretive space. In 2012, NHMU began a multiphase evaluation process to help staff members understand the experiences that visitors have during their visits to the new building. The
The third and final study, completed by Serrell and Associates in April 2014 in a program of visitor research at the Natural History Museum of Utah. The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) opened in November 2011, with a total of 51,270 square feet of public interpretive space. In 2012, NHMU began a multiphase evaluation process to help museum staff understand the experiences visitors have during their visits to the new building. The overall purpose of the research is to assess the degree to which the museum is meeting visitor needs and is having the desired impacts, so that future decisions
An evaluation of the Natural History Museum of Utah'(NHMU) "Trailhead to Utah" digital guide carried out by Frankly Green & Webb in March of 2014. The "Trailhead" is a digital ecosystem at the Natural History Museum of Utah consisting of touchscreen kiosks, a mobile guide, and a web portal for post-visit exploration. Since launching, the Trailhead to Utah system has suffered from low usage. NHMU wanted to understand why the service (in particular its mobile/smartphone element) was underused, and how it could be changed to offer a better visitor experience. In scoping the project, one key
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Natural History Museum of UtahBecky MenloveLindsey GreenPaul Tourle
Ocean GEMS is a multi-media series and outreach program that connects girls to women marine scientist role models to inspire investigation of ocean science adventures & careers.