Tornado Alley is a giant screen adventure that follows renegade filmmaker Sean Casey and the scientists of VORTEX2, the largest tornado research project ever assembled, on their epic missions to encounter one of Earth’s most awe-inspiring events: the birth of a tornado. Program components included the giant screen film; a Web site; educators’ guides and resources for classroom and informal learning; and professional development sessions utilizing cyberinfrastructure to facilitate remote interactions between educators and researchers performing actual data manipulations. In addition, an
QUEST is a unique cross-platform science journalism collaborative that creates and distributes content for radio, television, interactive, and education audiences. The project collaborative comprises six leading public media providers representing markets across the country: KQED (San Francisco), Nebraska Educational Television (NET) and Radio, UNC-TV (North Carolina), WVIZ/ideastream (Cleveland), Wisconsin Public TV (WPT) and Radio, and KCTS (Seattle). QUEST is built on the success of the local, cross-editorial QUEST model, in which professionals from multiple disciplines--radio, television
Concord Evaluation Group (CEG), led by Dr. Christine Paulsen, was hired by WGBH to perform an evaluation of NOVA’s Making Stuff Season 2 series (MS2), website, and outreach activities. CEG also conducted a separate set of formative evaluation activities during the early stages of resource development. The findings from the formative evaluation have been delivered separately. The goal of the summative evaluation was to explore the extent to which MS2 activities were successful at achieving NOVA’s intended impacts: 1. To increase public understanding that basic research leads to technological
The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) project Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM) will engage the general public and children from schools and community groups with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) exploration of Mars through exhibits simulating control of robotic rovers on the surface of Mars as well as related educational programming. This front-end evaluation for BEAM youth programs provides information to the BEAM project team about the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and skills among low-income and minority young people who are part of the field trip workshop
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Saint Louis Science CenterCarey Tisdal
This report presents the results of a front-end evaluation with Saint Louis Science Center visitors on the topics of Mars, Mars exploration, engineering, and robotics. This work was conducted by the Research & Evaluation Department of the Saint Louis Science Center. This front-end study was designed to inform the content development of the Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM) exhibition, which is being developed by the Saint Louis Science Center with the support of funding from NASA. The main objective of the evaluation was to gather information from Science Center visitors about their familiarity
This annual report presents an overview of Saint Louis Science Center audience data gathered through a variety of evaluation studies conducted during 2013. This report includes information on the Science Center's general public audience demographics and visitation patterns, gives an overview of visitors' comments about their Science Center experience, summarizes major trends observed in the Science Center's tool for tracking educational programs, and presents highlights from a front-end evaluation of a new agriculture exhibit and a summative evaluation of the the Youth Exploring Science
Rockman et al (REA), in partnership with Marti Louw and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), conducted a summative evaluation in Fall 2012-Spring 2013 of a temporary museum exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Pittsburgh, PA called, Stories in the Rock. The exhibition highlighted CMNH researchers’ documentation of ancient petroglyph sites in Saudi Arabia using GigaPan technology to capture high-resolution, zoomable images of the rock art. The exhibition centers around an activity called the Explorable Image, a
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University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School EnvironmentsCamellia Sanford-Dolly
Rockman et al (REA), in partnership with Marti Louw and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE) conducted a summative evaluation in Summer 2014 of an aquatic macroinvertebrate digital teaching collection (macroinvertebrates.org) containing voucher specimens from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Pittsburgh, PA. The digital teaching collection groups three orders of aquatic insects (stoneflies, caddisflies, and mayflies), and users can click on a specific insect and get information on its genus, habitat, behaviors, size, abundance
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University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School-Environments (UPCLOSE)Camellia Sanford-Dolly
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) contracted RK&A to conduct audience research for the Central Park Zoo (Zoo), located in the heart of New York City. As part of the study, RK&A explored the value visitors’ place on their Zoo experiences and the ways in which visitors use the Zoo and surrounding area. Findings from the study provide the WCS with a preliminary understanding of their visitors and lay the groundwork for a second phase of audience research. How did we approach this study? RK&A conducted in-depth interviews to explore visitors’ thoughts and perceptions of the Zoo, as well as
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Wildlife Conservation SocietyStephanie DowneyRandi Korn
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct audience research for the Page Museum (the Page) and La Brea Tar Pits (Tar Pits) as part of an overall strategy to examine the site’s current state and determine plans for its future. How did we approach this study? We designed the study to examine and compare Page Museum visitors’ and non-visitors’ perceptions of the Tar Pits and Page Museum; the meaning they construct from their experience; and their knowledge of current scientific research happening at the site. We conducted
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Natural History Museum of Los AngelesStephanie DowneyEmily Craig
The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) contracted with RK&A to conduct a formative evaluation in preparation for the reinstallation of its African art collections, one part of a large reinstallation project currently underway at the Museum. How did we approach this study? This evaluation explored visitors’ reactions to and understanding of the BMA’s potential approach to the African art reinstallation, employing the temporary exhibition Hand Held: Personal Arts from Africa as the base for visitor discussions. The museum used the exhibition Hand Held as an opportunity to explore different
The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a formative evaluation for Places of Invention, an exhibition funded by the National Science Foundation. The study explored visitors’ use and interpretation of the prototypes (including barriers to use and interpretation), understanding of the relationships among people-place-invention and 21st century skills, and interpretation of what the Places of Invention exhibition is about. How did we approach this study
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Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and InnovationRandi KornEmily CraigAmanda KrantzNational Museum of American HistorySmithsonian Institution