DragonflyTV Formative Evaluation of Three Shows

With support from the National Science Foundation and Best Buy, Twin Cities Public Television has produced a science series for children. Entitled "DragonflyTV," the series presents real kids engaged in real science to promote the process of science inquiry in viewers. This formative evaluation gathered feedback from 5th and 6th graders in response to three 28 minute videos, presented one per week. The following were the general research goals:

To evaluate change in student ability to design an experiment

To measure change in interest in doing one's own science investigation

To determine differences in student ratings of the importance of four procedures in science investigation

The interview protocol used in this study is featured on page 25 of the report.

To look for impact on attitude toward the corporate sponsor's involvement in helping kids learn

To assess appeal of the series of three shows overall and of individual segments.