In Spring 2009, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Museum) contracted with JVA Consulting, LLC (JVA) to conduct a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of the Passport to Health Program (P2H). The Museum designed P2H, a three-year program funded by the Colorado Health Foundation, to improve health outcomes for fifth-grade students as well as their families and teachers throughout the Denver metro area. This evaluation report offers the findings of the baseline process evaluation and climate assessment, which will serve as a foundation for future evaluation efforts. Using various
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JVA Consulting, LLCDenver Museum of Nature & Science
resourceevaluationMuseum and Science Center Exhibits
Summative report of permanent health science exhibition, Expedition Health, at Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The appendix of this report includes tracking-and-timing guideliens and codes and copies of cued questionnaires.
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Patricia McNamaraDenver Museum of Nature & Science
ConCiencia News was the first Spanish-language news service in the United States focused exclusively on health, science and environmental news, providing free of cost news stories to a diverse array of Hispanic media including 100+ newspapers and magazines, top Hispanic web portals, and almost 150 Spanish-language radio stations. Each news story features original content developed by SRF journalists, and Hispanic researchers are often features to serve as role models for the public. The summative evaluation focused on two primary audiences for the Spanish-language stories: 1) the professional
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (FWMSH) contracted with Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to evaluate CSI: The Experience National Science Foundation- and Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative-funded project focused on forensic science. The project included a museum exhibition and an online gaming experience (Web Adventure) targeting children ages 9 to 17 and adults. A summative evaluation explored visitors' overall experiences, understanding of forensic sciences, and the research question: Does the Web Adventure extend exhibition visitors' learning of forensic science? A process
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
RK&A was contracted by Save Ellis Island (SEI) to conduct a front end evaluation, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities planning grant. The objective for the evaluation was to examine Ellis Island's visitors' overall responses to the exhibit concepts, themes, and interpretive approaches for SEI's planned interpretation of Ellis Island's hospital and other medical facilities located on Ellis Island. RK&A first participated in planning meetings with SEI and their team of consultants to explore ideas for interpreting the medical facilities of Ellis Island. Upon reviewing the
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Save Ellis Island
The goal of a two-year SEPA grant, Phase II of a collaboration between Columbia University (CU) and the New York Hall of Science (NYHoS), was to enhance science teaching and learning through the use of portable laboratories and hands-on modules to study biotechnology and microscopy in middle and secondary school classes. Four multi-day workshops were held at the NYHoS to train teachers to use the portable laboratory kits. The primary goals of this evaluation are to assess: 1) the workshops' value for teaching the hands-on kit curriculum, 2) teachers' perception of the portable laboratories'
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Ellen GiustiNew York Hall of Science
Columbia University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and New York Hall of Science (NYHOS) partnered to create Research and Rolling Exhibits (RARE). The project's goal is to showcase current research in science and make it accessible to the general public. Five Wondercarts were created over three years, from 2005 through 2008, highlighting topical scientific research and its relevance to the museum's target audience. The carts were programmed to engage families in conversation, letting their interest determine the direction of activities. In this manner Wondercarts
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Ellen GiustiNew York Hall of ScienceKathleen Condon
Grossology Live! was a creative and innovative program that involved unique format, content, and collaboration. The program used live video-conferencing techniques to create two-way interaction between onscreen actors in a colorful Grossology set in the studio in Noblesville, Indiana; uniquely imaginative comedic and musical presentations on the human body; and a live presenter, stage set, and audience at 5 small science or health centers primarily in the mid-west and southeast. The receiving sites were members of the National Association of Health Education Centers (NAHEC), which played a
In 2005, Independent Broadcasting Associates (IBA) received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a series of radio programs for National Public Radio that features the Ganges river basin in South Asia. The radio programs, which are in the process of being produced, will describe the 650 million people who are supported by the river, as well as its cultural and religious significance. The programs will also describe the political and/or economic environment of the river and its surrounding areas. Each of these topics will encourage listeners to divorce themselves from U
GRG conducted summative evaluation of Ganga, a NSF-funded six-segment series of NPR radio programs about the culture and ecology of the river Ganga in India and Bangladesh and its companion Website. Through a web-based survey, GRG assessed the study participants' knowledge gain from and the satisfaction with the series and the Website. The appendix of this report includes the online survey used in the study.
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Irene GoodmanIndependent Broadcasting Associates, Inc.
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This is the opening talk of the session titled "Impacts of Citizen Science," delivered on day two of the Citizen Science Toolkit Conference at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York on June 20-23, 2007. Stephen Baillie, Director of Populations Research at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), shares examples of how research and monitoring undertaken by the BTO, based largely on volunteer surveys, has had an impact on conservation and environment policy in the U.K. Specifically, Baillie discusses a project related to the conservation of farmland birds and work on Avian Influenza.
This article provides commentary about the early closing of "Imaginary Coordinates," an exhibition at the Spertus Institute in Chicago, inspired by the antique maps of the Holy Land. The exhibition reportedly closed early because some groups found it "anti-Israel." Featured voices include exhibition curator Rhoda Rosen, Marc Fischer, of the Chicago-based design firm Temporary Services, and artist Michael Rakowitz. The materials gathered for this article present a microcosm of the museum community's struggle with "the unexhibitable" among other challenging museum issues.
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National Association of Museum Exhibition