Radiolab is a public radio series of hour-long interdisciplinary shows, co-hosted by Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad, and produced by WNYC. To help guide the future development of shows, this evaluation, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, gathered feedback from listeners via online and mailed questionnaires in response to a season 4 show entitled Choice. The general goals for the evaluation process are: (1) To explore what attributes of the format engage and interest listeners; (2) To examine influences on awareness and comprehension of content; and (3) To assess impact on post
WGBH has produced NOVA scienceNOW since 2005, with major funding from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Alfred. P. Sloan Foundation. NOVA scienceNOW (NsN) is comprised of a science news and magazine television series, a companion website, and a science cafe outreach initiative. All NsN offerings share common goals: (a) increase public awareness and understanding of cutting edge science content, and (b) increase public engagement in science-related activities. Beginning in Season 4 of NOVA scienceNOW (NsN), WGBH increased its efforts to promote the
"Evolution in Action: Isolation and Speciation in the Lower Congo" is a 9-minute documentary about a team of researchers working to understand what is driving the rapid evolution and speciation of fishes in the Lower Congo River. The evaluation was designed to probe the following: 1) Connection and Interest in the science content 2) Connections between the scientific story and other topics of personal interest 3) Implications of the multilingual versions for disseminating science to the public and to science educators The participants included international education students who work in
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maritza MacdonaldAmerican Museum Natural History
The evaluation research summarized here focuses on science reports developed by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. The reports appear on The NewsHour television broadcasts and are archived as streaming video available on the program's Web site (www.pbs.org/newshour/science), which includes enhanced media resources such as audio Podcasts, RSS feeds, transcripts, teacher lesson plans, background reports, slideshows, and interactives. The project's general intention is to produce positive learning outcomes and attitudes towards STEM topics (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and to foster
ConCiencia News was the first Spanish-language news service in the United States focused exclusively on health, science and environmental news, providing free of cost news stories to a diverse array of Hispanic media including 100+ newspapers and magazines, top Hispanic web portals, and almost 150 Spanish-language radio stations. Each news story features original content developed by SRF journalists, and Hispanic researchers are often features to serve as role models for the public. The summative evaluation focused on two primary audiences for the Spanish-language stories: 1) the professional
To define the most effective format for the new SCIGIRLS television series, we commissioned Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research to conduct a series of focus groups to evaluate sample SCIGIRLS TV videos. She presented a video of three girls who explore the wetlands in North Carolina. We created two versions of this video - one 10 minutes long, the other 18 minutes. The results demonstrated that a longer format is more appealing, as it allows the relationships among the girls in the video to unfold, permits viewers to get to know more about them, and allows their science activities to unfold in
The Living on Earth's Ecological Literacy project (ELP) offers a comprehensive, flexible curricular framework that includes an integrated approach to field-based environmental studies, investigative journalism and computer-based radio production and engineering in middle and high school settings. The 2002-03 school year marked Year Three of the three-year, NSF-funded Ecological Literacy Project. Rockman et al, an educational research firm headquartered in San Francisco, conducted an independent evaluation of the ELP Year Two program activities (Char and Rockman, 2002), and continued evaluation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Saul RockmanWorld Media FoundationCindy Char
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer received a three-year National Science Foundation grant from Fall 2003 to Spring 2006 to develop, produce and air science reports during the regularly televised news program. The Online NewsHour Web site extends the reach of the science reports by housing the broadcast transcripts of the science reports, as well as information, graphics, and links that enhance the televised segments. In addition, EXTRA, a feature within the Web site designed for teachers and students, provides lesson plans and resources to support the use of the science segments in the classroom
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Rockman et alMacNeil/Lehrer Productions
Bill Nye the Science Guy is a widely-viewed, children's television series on science. Designed for eight-to-ten year olds, this series is shown in late afternoons Monday through Friday on PBS stations and on commercial television over the weekends. Rockman et al, an independent research group in San Francisco, was contracted by KCTS, Seattle, WA, to undertake an evaluation of the Bill Nye the Science Guy television series. The evaluation was charged with exploring the impact of the series on children at home, in school, and in other settings where children can watch television. Both the
During fall 1998, KCTS produced 50,000 “Bill Nye Family Fun Science Packets"" that included a family calendar and a ten-minute video. This outreach packet was meant for distribution to families with school-age children and designed to encourage family science activities at home. KCTS distributed these Packets in sets of 25-1,000 to community organizations, PBS stations, and member agencies of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). This study focused on capturing information about family and child involvement in science activities before and after they receive the BILL NYE
Rockman et al (REA) conducted an impact study of the educational, two-hour, television special, Exploring Time, and the value-add of its associated web site, www.exploringtime.org. The program's objective is to increase the public's understanding of change over time the multitude of changes that are occurring in the present, but at rates too slow or too fast to be seen. This evaluation explored the extent to which the programs and web site met this overall objective by looking at three impacts of the resources: (1) Comprehension of the program's content, (2) Knowledge and understanding gained
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Saul RockmanTwin Cities Public Television
In 2008, Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) conducted summative evaluation of Absolute Zero, a collaborative effort of the University of Oregon's Cryogenic Helium Turbulence Laboratory and Twin Cities Public Television. The films were produced by Meridian/Windfall Productions, Washington DC, and/Windfall Films in London, UK. Outreach was spearheaded by Devillier Communications, Inc. The Absolute Zero project was centered on a two-part documentary about low-temperature physics, which aired on PBS/NOVA in early January 2008, as well as an outreach campaign, which included approximately 20
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Irene GoodmanUniversity of OregonLaura HousemanMarianne McPherson