Water’s Journey through the Everglades: Summative Evaluation

The University of Central Florida (UCF) received funding from the National Science Foundation through the Informal Science Education program (# 0638977) to create a series of exhibits entitled Water's Journey through the Everglades (Water's Journey). The project deliverables included ten kiosks integrated into an expansion of the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) in Fort Lauderdale, FL, with the new exhibition areas opening in November 2011. The kiosks model aspects of Florida's ecosystems and natural history, highlighting the natural balance of the Everglades and the interplay between Florida's environment and human development. Using interactive display techniques, simulations, models, and game play, Water's Journey exhibits were designed by staff at UCF's Media Convergence Laboratory and E2i Creative Studio. Aimed at youth aged 10 to 16 years old, audience outcomes for the project included 1) greater awareness of the role of water in the environment, 2) understanding of the time scales and scope of environmental change, and 3) increased understanding of the relevance of science within the context of Florida's ecosystems. The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) served as the external summative evaluator for the Water's Journey project. The summative evaluation was designed to better understand how the Water's Journey kiosks were contextualized within MODS exhibition spaces and to document the impacts of the kiosks on children attending MODS with a family group. Two studies, each using a combination of methods, were undertaken during the course of the summative evaluation: 1) a contextual study of the use of Water's Journey kiosks within the exhibit spaces, and 2) a kiosk-based study of the use and impact of the kiosks. Interviews with the members of the project also were conducted to provide context to the evaluation results. This document includes an overview of the Water's Journey exhibits, a description of the study design and methods, and the summative evaluation findings. Key findings from the summative evaluation include: As a whole, the Water's Journey exhibits achieved the three audience impacts for the project. Individually, some exhibits achieved all three impacts while others achieved one or two. Impact 1, the role of water in the environment: Quantitative ratings indicated that visitors in the target age-range did not perceive the role of water in the environment as a message of all of kiosks; however, qualitative data indicated that visitors were able to accurately describe how the topic was incorporated into the exhibits. Impact 2, time scales and scope of environmental change: Quantitative ratings indicated that visitors in the target age-range did not perceive the topic of environmental change over time as a message of all kiosks; qualitative data indicated that for these same exhibits, visitors were not able describe how the topic was incorporated into the exhibits. This finding may be a result of the different methods used to interpret time, with some kiosks using more explicit visualizations or time scales (such as deep time) which are more commonly associated with environmental change. Impact 3, relevance of science: Quantitative and qualitative data both support the findings that this impact was achieved at all Water's Journey exhibits, with visitors in the target age-range describing the necessity to care for animals and the environment as reasons why the exhibits were relevant. Issues such as human impacts on the environment and the local/Florida-related scope of the topics were also mentioned by a sub-set of visitors. A comparison of pre-interaction ratings and post-interaction ratings for all the Water's Journey exhibits found significant differences pre-to-post for interest in learning more about and knowledge of Florida's environment; post-interaction ratings were significantly higher for both interest and knowledge. When considering the exhibits individually, three out of the five exhibit groupings also demonstrated statistically significant differences pre-to-post (i.e. Human Encroachment, the Florida Table kiosks, and the Hurricanes kiosks). Water's Journey exhibits attracted the attention of visitors in the target age-range, held their attention, and fostered levels of engagement, performing as well or better than other exhibits in the same sub-sections of MODS. Water's Journey exhibits located in the Storm Center area of MODS were used more often and for longer time periods than the Water's Journey exhibits in other areas when visitors were observed without cuing them to the presence of the evaluator. This finding is consistent with the overall patterns of exhibit usage for the exhibition spaces included in the study, with the Storm Center area having a lower Sweep Rate Index and higher percent of Diligent Visitors than the other spaces included in the study. Cued, focused observations at the individual Water's Journey exhibits indicated that the exhibits supported 1) repeated interactions, with visitors playing the same game/scenario multiple times and 2) social interactions within visitor groups, including goal setting, hypothesizing, observations of results, and problem-solving between adults and youth and between peers. Usability issues were common at the Water's Journey exhibits with the sensitivity of the touchscreens a common problem. Usability issues prevented some visitors from accessing deeper layers of content or engaging in the full capabilities of the simulations. The appendix of this report includes observation and interview protocols used in the study.

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