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 February 2005, randomly selected museum visitors were interviewed about their interest in and knowledge about a topic for a new exhibition under development by the Washington State Historical Society (WSHS), called "Tracking the West." (Note: The working title has since been changed to "The West the Railroads Made," but this report keeps the references to the former title.) Since this is intended to be a traveling exhibition, visitors at two potential sites were interviewed: in Tacoma, Washington (at the host institution for this front-end study), and in Chicago, Illinois, at the Chicago
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Beverly SerrellWashington State Historical Society
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Museum of Science partnered with the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing to create a sequence of professional development experiences in science communication and hands-on learning for graduate students and post-docs. The Sharing Science Workshops were intended to help graduate students who work with the CHN program to improve their abilities to present their research to a variety of scientific and nonscientific audiences. The sequence included a half-day "Sharing Science" workshop, a half-day guided "Practicum" with museum visitors, and optional participation in NanoDays events at MOS
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Donahue Institute Research and Evaluation Group
In 2010, the NISE Network’s Diversity, Equity, and Access working group undertook a partnership pilot project to identify strategies for engaging youth from underrepresented backgrounds in nanoscale informal science learning experiences. To carry out the project, three museums developed partnerships to deliver programming at Boys & Girls Clubs in their communities. This report provides case studies of how the partnerships developed over time and provides lessons learned to help guide informal educators working with Boys & Girls Clubs or similar afterschool programs.
STAR_Net brings inquiry-based STEM1 learning experiences to public libraries through two traveling exhibits, associated programming for library patrons, and a virtual community of practice for library staff and others who are interested in bringing STEM programming to libraries. In 2010, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year grant to the Space Science Institute’s (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and its partners—the American Library Association (ALA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP)—to
With this 3-year project, TERC and the Museum of Science (MoS) Boston are studying how family and school visitors integrate iPod Touch versions of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP), Signing Science Dictionary (SSD), and Signing Math Dictionary (SMD) into their museum experience and the impact of dictionary use. This report focuses on family visitors. Each dictionary includes more than 700 standards-based science or mathematics terms. The SSP (funded in part by grants from the Shapiro Family Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education, Grant #H327A080040) is intended for children ages 5
Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) conducted an evaluation study to learn about the Future City’s impact on students as well as to discover ways to enhance Future City for future implementation. In addition to exploring the program’s impacts, with this study we also had an opportunity to explore potential differences between students who compete at their Regional competitions only versus students who make it to the National competition. In collaboration with DiscoverE, CEG developed four surveys to collect feedback from students, parents, educators, and engineer mentors. These data collection
National Engineers Week Foundation (EWeek) hired Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) in 2011 to conduct an independent evaluation of the Future City program (http://futurecity.org). Future City has been operating since 1992. According to EWeek, the Future City program is “a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCityTM 4 Deluxe software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; build tabletop scale models
Informal Learning Solutions and its subcontractor, Audience Viewpoints Consulting, conducted summative evaluation in 2013 of the Life Beyond Earth Exhibit. Audience Viewpoints was responsible for evaluating student response to the exhibit, with a target audience of students in 4th through 6th grades. Informal Learning Solutions conducted evaluation of weekend, primarily adult visitors response to the exhibit. The key evaluation questions were designed to find out if student visitors show gains in understanding regarding: • How extreme life on Earth is relevant for the search for life in our
This report summarizes evaluative findings from a project titled “What Curiosity Sounds Like: Discovering, Challenging, and Sharing Scientific Ideas” (a.k.a.: “Discovery Dialogues”). The project, a Full-Scale development project funded by the National Science Foundation as part of its Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) program, explored new ways to actively engage both lay and professional audiences, and foster meaningful communication between scientists and the general public. Appendix includes survey and interview questions.