Summative evaluation of four programs created by the NISE Network. The survey instrument used in this study is included in the appendix of this report.
This study looks specifically at the activities of the Tier I, II and III institutions as a way of determining whether it is likely that NISE Net will have an impact on the public through the NSET public outreach activities of those institutions. The main question driving this study is the following: To what extent is NISE Net reaching the public through the different tiers of the Network? This study presents preliminary findings from the Study 2 investigation, looking specifically at the actions of the professionals who have come into contact with NISE Net (including those who have attended
The Nanoawareness Study is designed to answer the question "What, if any, impact do NISE Net activities delivered at Tier 1 and Tier 2 institutions have on the nanoawareness of the public audiences that experience those activities?" The Nanoawareness Study was initially conducted in Year 3 and then replicated in Year 4 with some methodological changes and a different sample of participants. The following report describes the Nanoawareness Study findings from Year 4 in comparison to findings from Year 3. This appendix of this report includes the online survey instrument used in the study.
The documents that comprise the Inverness Research Summative Report provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the progress made in developing a network organization capable of supporting nanoscience education for the public on a national scale.
This 2009 summative evaluation of nanotechnology news segments produced by the Museum of Science utilized a post-only, double-blind, randomly-assigned treatment and control group experiment methodology.
In this article, contracts attorney Bruce A. Falk offers a practical guide to circumventing the legalities of soliciting content from third-parties (i.e. audience participation). Falk provides a brief history of copyright and contract law and useful examples and models of contracts, in response to the growing trend of museums integrating user-generated content into their spaces and programs.
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Bruce A. FalkNational Association for Museum Exhibition
This article features three critiques of the exhibition "MN150" at the Minnesota History Center, part of the celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the State of Minnesota. Roger Barrett, Exhibit Designer at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Liza Pryor, Project Leader in the Exhibits Department at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Jeanne Vergeront, Principal of Vergeront Museum Planning, each provide an assessment of the exhibition.
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Roger BarrettLiza PryerJeanne W. Vergeront
In this article, John Jacobsen, CEO and CO-PI at the White Oak Institute, President of White Oak Associates, and Co-Chair of the Professional Interest Committee for Green Museums (PIC Green), explores sustainable design and argues that large museums have a lot to learn from smaller institutions. Jacobsen outlines how and why museums should take a "leaner and greener" approach.
In this article, Lea T.F. Warden, Independent Researcher/Collections Manager, examines traveling exhibitions and their impact on the environment. Warden discusses there interrelated aspects of traveling exhibitions where resource conservation is particularly in need of improvement: transportation, packaging, and scheduling. Warden argues that museums must take more responsibility for the role it plays in the larger context of environmental degradation if they want to continue to produce and house traveling exhibitions.
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Lea T.F. WardenNational Association for Museum Exhibition
In this article, Tisha Carper Long, a student in museum studies, explores how the bleak job market is affecting recent graduates of museum studies programs. Carper Long outlines ways unemployed professionals and new graduates can "get by" until the economic outlook improves.
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Tisha Carper LongNational Association for Museum Exhibition
University of New Mexico (UNM) and Arizona State University (ASU) created a paved 3-km walking trail along the south rim of the Grand Canyon in partnership with the National Park Service. The "Trail of Time" is marked as a time line corresponding to Earth history, along with interpretive wayside exhibits. This place-based geoscience exhibition using Grand Canyon as an immersive environment is designed to help visitors gain an understanding of the magnitude of geologic time, as well as key processes and events in the geologic evolution of the region.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karl KarlstromLaura CrosseySteven SemkenRebecca Mathews Frus
A team of researchers and practitioners developed a museum program to coach families in the skills of scientific inquiry at interactive exhibits. The program was inspired by the increasing focus on scientific inquiry in schools and the growing number of open-ended exhibit designs in science museums. The development process involved major decisions in two arenas: which inquiry skills to teach, and what pedagogical strategies to use to teach them. After many rounds of refinement based on evaluation with families, the final program, called Inquiry Games, improved visitors' inquiry behavior in