Exploring Life's Origins is a project funded by the National Science Foundation through the Discovery Corps Postdoctoral Fellowship. Janet Iwasa was the recipient of this grant, and her goals were to help the public understand research on the origins of life conducted in the labs of Dr. Jack Szostak from Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital and the Center for Origins Research by creating molecular visualizations based on the research and communicating to the public scientific research concepts related to the origins of life. The science communication portion of this project was
This evaluation study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of two design strategies used in Beyond the X-Ray: personal stories which were a part of the Five Windows on the Body and a separate kid area which was implemented in Kid Radiology. Evaluation Questions: 1. How do visitors interact with and use the exhibits in Beyond the X-Ray that were created with the instructional design strategies that are the focus of this evaluation? 2. In what ways, if any, are the exhibits that are designed with the targeted strategies effective at achieving their stated goals? 3. What are the visitors'
Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to evaluate Hot Pink Flamingos: Stories of Hope in a Changing Sea, a special exhibition that, according to MBA, explores how climate change is affecting ocean life and recommends small changes we all can make to help the oceans as well as big changes we can make together to solve the climate crisis. A summative evaluation explored how well MBA achieved its goals for the exhibition and identified other significant findings that may affect future projects. This evaluation combined methodologies to understand how visitors
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Monterey Bay Aquarium
Knight Williams Research Communications (Knight Williams, Inc), an independent evaluation firm specializing in the development and evaluation of science education media, conducted the summative evaluation for Ice Stories. The evaluation focused on the extent to which the project achieved the goals described in the Exploratorium's grant to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Research and Education, Antarctic Coordination and Information program within the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL). The NSF DRL program provided funding for both the project
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Valerie Knight-WilliamsExploratoriumDivan WilliamsChristina MeyersOra GrinbergTal SraboyantsEveen ChanDavid Tower
Three Big Back Yard (BBY) evaluations were carried out during the summer of 2006. A timing and tracking study was conducted to understand how visitors utilized and interacted with the various components of the Big Back Yard. A total of 101 visitors were observed. Exit interviews were carried out with 96 visitors as they left the BBY. The exit interviews provided an understanding of visitors' motivations for visiting the BBY, what they knew about the BBY before they visited, and their experience with the golf course's content. A lobby interview was conducted with 160 visitors as they left the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy Grack NelsonBeth JanetskiLevi WeinhagenScience 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
During the summer of 2007, the Science Museum of Minnesota carried out a summative evaluation of the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center's Park Crew program. The purpose of the evaluation was to understand how the youth staff implemented activities in the museum's Big Back Yard and what they learned about earth-surface processes, teaching others, and STEM careers. A mixed-methods design was used to gather evaluative data. Data collection methods included observations of youth presenting activities to visitors and pre- and post-interviews with the youth. A total of 11 youth (sophomore through
Starting in the summer of 2008, the DMNS enactor program began to be implemented throughout DMNS' diorama halls. Aligned with the 100th anniversary of the Museum, the enactor team began to portray turn-of-the-century characters to engage and educate visitors in the dioramas and permanent galleries.The Visitor Programs Department, who manage the enactor program, outlined several goals for the program in the diorama halls prior to the study: 1. To bring attention to the richness of the dioramas and to the individual objects/specimens within them. 2. To connect the visitors to those dioramas and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kathleen TinworthDenver Museum of Nature & Science
Listeners to The Really Big Questions (TRBQ) were asked to complete an online survey about their thoughts and experience with the program. Those interviewed cited that they valued the depth and thoughtfulness of the TRBQ programs and said they would like to see more programming produced. When asked, listeners reported that they would be willing to access programming via the Internet if it were not available by radio broadcast. They also reported that while they would like to see new programming as frequently as every week, they felt that quality and depth were more important than the number of
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'
Edu, Inc. provided expertise and experience in user testing and evaluation of public outreach using new media for this project. In their role as advisor, Edu, Inc., observed that the website successfully satisfied the project goal of producing and testing five new models of interactive media and several feedback mechanisms to allow the public to register personal opinions on ethical scenarios regarding nanotechnology. The evaluators suggest that there is significant anecdotal evidence to recommend four practices tested by the web designers: 1. The potential of web comics as a media to present
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Douglas SpencerOregon Public BroadcastingJediah GrahamSusan Hibbard