The Extreme Plants Traveling Sideshow is a theatre piece performed at the Natural History Museum of Utah in relation to the special exhibition, The Power of Poison. While NHMU has a history of Museum Theatre performances, this was the first to be performed since its move to the Rio Tinto Center.
The goal of this evaluation was to understand the visitor experience with museum theater and museum theatre’s value in communicating science content, as well as to inform future productions at NHMU. With this in mind, we sought answer the following questions:
1. Did guests feel the performance
Portal to the Public (PoP) has been operated with considerable funding from the National Science Foundation since 2007 under the leadership of Pacific Science Center (PSC). The program uses a particular model to train and support science-based professionals (“scientists”) in outreach and engagement activities, based on the premise that scientists should engage directly and through materials-rich hands-on activities with family audiences, based on a basic understanding on how people learn, and how to engage audiences in discovery-based learning. Furthermore, the model assumes that scientists
Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Global Soundscapes! Big Data, Big Screens, Open Ears project employs a variety of informal learning experiences to present the physics of sound and the new science of soundscape ecology. The interdisciplinary science analyzes sounds over time in different ecosystems around the world. The major components of the Global Soundscapes project are an educator-led interactive giant-screen theater program and hands-on group activities. Multimedia Research, an independent evaluation firm, implemented a summative evaluation with low income, inner-city
Beginning in September 2015, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) initiated the three-year project Latina SciGirls: Promoting Middle School-Age Hispanic Girls' Positive STEM Identity Development. The cornerstone of the project is a fourth season of the Emmy Award-winning television and transmedia project SciGirls, to premiere in 2017, in this case involving six half-hour SciGirls episodes filmed in Spanish showing groups of Hispanic girls and their Hispanic STEM mentors investigating science and engineering problems. The television
As part of the development work of Latina SciGirls, the independent evaluation firm Knight Williams Inc. conducted a front-end evaluation focused on gathering input from the project’s primary public audiences (Latina girls and their parents/guardians) and professional audiences (the project’s advisers and partners). A total of 86 participants representing these diverse audience perspectives were asked to review an episode of the SciGirls program Hábitat en Caos/Habitat Havoc and two role model scientist profile videos featuring Karin Block and Victoria Velez. Scheduled early in Year 1 of the
A three day TTT session was held in May 2015 at Twin Cities PBS in St. Paul, MN to train nine representatives from NGCP State Collaboratives in the SciGirls Seven and Citizen SciGirls project materials (episodes, activities). NGCP chose the nine leaders (from nine states) through an application process specifically targeting regions who had not previously received training on SciGirls research-based strategies. These trainers were then expected to hold two training sessions with up to 30 educators at each session between fall of 2015 and fall of 2016. Fourteen sessions were held reaching
The independent evaluation team subsequently undertook a formative evaluation to provide the production team with feedback on issues that arose from the front-end evaluation findings and from tpt’s early production work on the first Season Four episode and STEM role model videos.
As part of the development work of Latina SciGirls, the independent evaluation firm Knight Williams Inc. conducted a front-end evaluation focused on gathering input from the project’s primary public audiences (Latina girls and their parents/guardians) and professional audiences (the project’s advisers and partners).
Appendix includes logic model.
The purpose of this report is to summarize the findings from the Years 6-10 (2010-2015) Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) summative evaluation studies and to discuss factors that contributed to the achievement of NISE Net’s goals. The report centers on summative evaluation findings, while also including major project output data and corroborating findings from the Years 6-10 NISE Net research studies. By synthesizing findings across studies, this summary evaluation report provides a high-level description of the cross-cutting and integrated knowledge generation efforts
The National Museum of the American Indian, NY (NMAI-NY) contracted RK&A to conduct a two-phase formative evaluation of the museum’s upcoming Native New York exhibition. The study’s objectives for walk-in visitors and teachers were to understand their baseline knowledge, what piques their interest, potential barriers (confusion or misunderstanding), strategies to help make personal connections, and how/if they understand exhibition outcomes (such as appreciate who Native Americans are today and understand that Native peoples have powerfully shaped and defined New York’s geography, economy, and
In 2012, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an exhibition utilizing objects from the former Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (QMDs), contextualizing them in the greater conversation about scientific skepticism and how people make healthcare decisions. The resulting exhibition, Weighing the Evidence, opened in December 2015. This kt, object-based exhibition is organized into four islands of artifacts with accompanying information and hands-on “Try It” interactives, which allow visitors to experience some
The Concord Museum contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a front-end evaluation of its current permanent exhibition gallery—Why Concord?—in preparation for a comprehensive reinterpretation and reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collections funded by an IMLS grant. The goal of the evaluation was to understand the current visitor experience in Why Concord? and to explore visitors’ responses to several ideas the museum is considering for the updated exhibition. Specifically, the evaluation explored the extent to which visitors find history relevant (in general, in the