Front-end and formative evaluation of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Invention, Design, Engineering, and Art (IDEA) Cooperative youth development program was carried out from June 2008 - May 2009. The front-end and formative evaluation activities were guided by four overarching questions. 1. To what extent are youth able to apply IT and engineering process skills to design challenges? Can they come up with multiple solutions to challenges? Are they persistent problem solvers? 2. To what extent does the program provide youth with the necessary resources to help youth prepare for both
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy Grack NelsonMelissa FitzenbergerKathleen MillerClaire Phillippe
All youth in the Science Museum of Minnesota's Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) are invited to complete a web-based exit survey upon leaving their current team. The survey is the same across all KAYSC teams, with the addition of some questions specific to a team experience and outcomes. This report includes select data from the exit surveys for the Invention, Design, Engineering, and Art (IDEA) Cooperative high school team, called the Invention Crew. The purpose of the exit surveys were to understand youth's overall experience on the IDEA Coop as well as the impact of the IDEA Coop
All youth in the Science Museum of Minnesota's Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) are invited to complete a web-based exit survey upon leaving their current team. The survey is the same across all KAYSC teams, with the addition of some questions specific to a teamâs experience and outcomes. This report includes select data from the exit surveys for the Invention, Design, Engineering, and Art (IDEA) Cooperative middle school team, called the Design Team. The purpose of the exit surveys were to understand youth's overall experience on the IDEA Coop as well as the impact of the IDEA
Too Small to See is a 5,000 square-foot interactive traveling museum exhibition designed to provide hands-on nanotechnology science education to youth age 8 to 13 and adults. It debuted at Disney's Epcot and will reach over three million people during a five-year US tour. This evaluation examines the exhibition’s outcomes and impact on increasing visitors’ awareness of, interest in, engagement with, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. An overarching goal is to document the project’s contribution to the portfolio of federally funded Science Technology
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Douglas SpencerTina PhillipsTori AngelottiShane MurphyFred ConnerCornell University
In MIT’s NSF-funded Terrascope Youth Radio (TYR) program, urban youth, many from groups historically underrepresented in the sciences, worked as paid interns who received training in radio production, reporting and writing stories with scientific content and audio storytelling to create environmentally oriented audio pieces that were engaging and relevant to their own and their peers’ lives. Teen interns participated between July 2008 and Autumn 2012. TYR’s goals were to improve a broad audience of teens’ engagement with, knowledge of, and attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and
Visitor Baseline Study of Science on a Sphere at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. This resource includes the Research Assistant Protocol, Observation Protocol, and Visitor Questionnaire.
Visitor Baseline study for Science on a Sphere at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Resource includes Research Assistant Protocol and Visitor Questionnaire.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Andrea GironDenver Museum of Nature & Science
Visitor Baseline study for Science on a Sphere at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The Sphere was installed in DMNS’ permanent space science gallery, Space Odyssey, in February 2010. Space Odyssey “Museum Galaxy Guides” (volunteer facilitators) were trained on Sphere operation and content in April 2010. The purpose of the Baseline Visitor Study was to establish a baseline of visitors’ length of stay, behavior, interactions, perceptions, and interest in the Sphere near the beginning of the grant period. These data and findings will serve a basis of comparison for future evaluations and
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Andrea GironDenver Museum of Nature & Science
resourceevaluationMuseum and Science Center Programs
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a National Science Foundation funded project which developed a national traveling exhibition on science and technology themes depicted in the Star Wars movies. The Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) developed the exhibition in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. and Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (SMEC). The exhibition will travel to members of the SMEC in Los Angeles, Portland, Fort Worth, St. Paul, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Boston. Other venues will display the exhibition after the Collaborative tour. Tisdal Consulting was contracted to
The Workshop to Explore Engaging Broader Publics in Conversations about Assessment of the Societal Implications of New and Emerging Directions in Science and Technology (ECAST Workshop) was created to explore network-building activities to more broadly involve the public in deliberations about the assessment of technology. The workshop aimed to develop models for leveraging the work done by ECAST (Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology), and specifically expand the reach of the World Wide Views (WWViews) on Biodiversity deliberations. The project team wanted to brainstorm ways
The exhibition Innovation Showcase focused on energy-related innovation and individual action. As part of a larger project, Innovations in Energy, the central visitor-focused question for this exhibition was: "To what extent and in what ways do the various components of Innovations in Energy serve toward meeting outcomes for the target audiences?" This summative evaluation of Innovation Showcase addressed this question by identifying how COSI visitors used the gallery space (particularly at the level of individual exhibition elements) and how they described their experience in Innovation
Bio Med Tech: Engineering for Your Health was a 2,750 square foot exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) that dealt with issues related to biomedical technology. Partially funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Awards program (NIH/SEPA), the project was developed through a partnership between GLSC and Case Western Reserve University. The SEPA grant also funded a variety of programming activities, including informal Exploration Cart activities in the exhibition, presentations in the exhibition's theater space, and teacher training