Summative Evaluation of National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth Television Series and Website with an Adult Audience

Strange Days on Planet Earth combines a 4-part television series and outreach program produced by Sea Studios Foundation (SSF) for National Geographic Television and Film and Vulcan Productions, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The project comprises three primary components: a broadcast series, website, and a national consortium of informal learning institutions. The project team expects that through consistent messaging and content, these components, when integrated, collectively offer the public enriched opportunities to explore and learn about the environment and the emergence of Earth System Science, a relatively new multidisciplinary approach to studying the planet that involves the physical, life, and social sciences. In particular the project expects to impact the public in three ways, by: 1) Increasing interest in the subject of science and the environment; 2) Increasing engagement and further learning; and 3) Increasing understanding of the environment through Earth System Science. Knight-Williams Research Communications (Knight-Williams), an independent evaluation firm specializing in the evaluation of science education media, conducted the summative evaluation for the project. The evaluation assessed the extent to which Strange Days on Planet Earth realized the informal science education goals described in the project's grant proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF), which subsequently provided funding for the television series, outreach program, and independent evaluation.

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