Nanoscale science and engineering study and create materials and devices on the molecular scale. The Nanobiotechnology Center, a National Science Foundation supported Science and Technology Center, collaborated with Ithaca, New York's Sciencenter, a hands-on museum, and Painted Universe, Inc. an exhibition design-and-fabrication team, to create It's a NanoWorld, a 3,000 square-foot, hands-on traveling exhibition. Edu, Inc., an external evaluation group, led front-end research and formative evaluation to guide and refine development of the exhibition. Summative evaluation investigated visitors'
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Douglas SpencerCornell UniversityVictoria AngelottiSciencenter
The tool was created by 4H Nebraska to measure students’ (7-10th graders ) learning and attitudes towards science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The tool also assesses students’ attitude about GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and GIS (Geographical Imaging Systems).
Assesses children's interest in, attitude towards, and experiences in science and technology, as well as their opinion about environmental challenges and career aspirations.
This report is the formative evaluation for the “Computing the Future” presentation, a presentation concerned with both the history of computers and the ways in which nanotechnology is changing how computers are built and operated. The survey used in this study is included in the appendix of this report.
This report evaluates the program entitled “Treating Tumors with Gold” by looking at visitor feedback in an attempt to assess the success with which the presentation was able to educate the public on a particular study using nanotechnology. The exit survey instrument is included in the appendix of this report.
The Nanomedicine Explorer kiosk at the Museum of Science, Boston provides opportunities to learn about nanomedicine, nanotechnology, cancer biology, new research in cancer diagnosis and therapy, and the process of medical research from bench to bedside. This report is the formative evaluation of the prototype of this kiosk, presenting the results of visitor observations, exit surveys, and interviews. The findings of these data served to provide the Nanomedicine Explorer production team a basis from which to make improvements to the program, which was released as Version 1.0 in May of 2009
This formative evaluation was conducted to see how the addition of an interactive media piece enhanced visitors' understanding of Nasturtium, a life sciences exhibit that demonstrates the water repelling properties of nasturtium leaves. The media piece allows the visitor to view leaf structures at progressively higher magnifications to better illustrate their scale and function. The interview questions used in this study are included in the appendix of this report.
This report documents two formative evaluations on an interactive media piece that allows its users to zoom in from a human hand to an atom. This zoom uses a spiral to connote zooming and is a departure from a more conventional zoom in which each successive image is a magnification of a portion of the preceding image. Interview protocols are included in the appendix of this report.
This report evaluates the nanotechnology-related presentations delivered at the Museum of Science, Boston, in an effort to more effectively educate the public. Interview questions used in this study are included in the appendix of this report.
A series of interview studies was conducted to determine how museum visitors interpret scale ladders that focus on the nanoscale. These studies look at different versions of an example scale ladder in order to: a.) Iteratively develop a scale ladder that may be used by other informal science institutions. b.) Formulate guidelines to inform the design and use of other scale ladders. Interview questions used for studies 1-3 are included in the appendix of this report.
This front-end study was conducted to gauge the visiting public’s interpretation of scientific images of the nanoscale. The interview questions used during this study are included in the appendix of this report.