International Science Centre Impact Study

Hundreds of millions of youth and adults visit science centers across the world. Although science centers have long asserted that these visits play a critical role in supporting the science learning of the public, robust and unequivocal evidence is limited. The International Science Centre Impact Study (ISCIS), a consortium of 17 science centers in 13 countries under the direction of John H. Falk Research, was designed to empirically determine whether experiences at science centres correlated with a range of critical public science and technology literacy outcomes. Because of the complex and cumulative nature of science and technology learning, an epidemiological research approach was used. Epidemiological approaches are designed to demonstrate, with specific statistical certainty whether certain factors do or do not correlate with an outcome. A questionnaire was developed, pilot tested and administered in each of the 17 communities to a representative sample of: 1) all youth ages 14–15 (n=5,792); and 2) all adults ages 18 and over (n=6,089) living within the target communities. Roughly half of all 14- to 15-year-old youth (47%) and less than half of all adults (44%) in the combined sample had visited one of the science centers at least once during their lifetime. Results strongly supported the contention that individuals who used science centres were significantly more likely to be science and technology literate and engaged citizens.

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