The Wild Center has been running climate programs for over a decade and has embraced a culture of evaluation in its work to reflect on and improve the programs over time. This evaluation built on findings from prior evaluations to further explore the programs’ impact on rural youth and teachers, but also sought to understand broader contributions to the ecosystem of organizations doing climate resilience work across New York state and around the country.
The following summative report describes overarching evaluation findings from the evaluation of Leap into Science, including future considerations for the Leap into Science program team (program team). The report aims to summarize takeaways from 2018-2023 and report on overall insights pertaining to the core evaluation questions of interest.
In fall 2019, the Bell Museum received funding via a NASA TEAM II grant to create Mars: The Ultimate Voyage, a full-dome planetarium show and accompanying hands-on activities that focus on the interdisciplinary roles that will be needed to send humans to Mars. This report from Catalyst Consulting Group presents the findings from the summative evaluation completed in March–May 2023.
The Arctic Harvest-Public Participation in Scientific Research (which encompasses the Winterberry Citizen Science program), a four-year citizen science project looking at the effect of climate change on berry availability to consumers has made measurable progress advancing our understanding of key performance indicators of highly effective citizen science programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Angela LarsonKelly KealyMakaela Dickerson
This report provides an overview of the rationale and design of the STEM Excellence Project, the key findings and takeaways from the research, and future directions for raising the aspirations of rural students for success in STEM fields.
This project builds off prior work conducted for the Science Center Public Forums project (NA15SEC008005) where eight forums were held at different sites across the US related to four climate hazards (drought, sea level rise, extreme heat, and extreme precipitation).
Education Development Center (EDC) conducted the external evaluation of this second phase of NASA@ My Library. Library staff from partner libraries increased their confidence and ability to facilitate library programming related to Earth, space, and engineering.
PocketMacro is a mobile app designed by the Learning Media Design Center at Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with Stroud Water Research Center, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Clemson University, and stakeholder input. The PocketMacro app aims to help users better identify benthic macroinvertebrates commonly found in streams and other waterways. Rockman et al Cooperative (REA), an independent educational evaluation group, designed a summative study to explore the effectiveness of the app in supporting users’ aquatic macroinvertebrate identification. The purpose of the
How do afterschool programs view their local public libraries? Are they working with them, and in what ways? These are the questions that the Afterschool Alliance, along with its partners at the Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and the American Library Association, wanted to answer. Overall, our goal is to build bridges between the afterschool and library fields, so that both can share knowledge and resources to better serve our youth. While our work together has primarily focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education through
The Nurture Nature Foundation’s Flood Forum project, funded by a two-year National Science Foundation (NSF) planning grant effective August 1, 2009, explored innovative means to promote science learning by and for local communities. The NSF planning grant allowed Nurture Nature Foundation (NNF) to develop a model of outreach for science centers that engages rural and underserved audiences in public dialogue on the science underlying an issue of high public concern—frequent flooding in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Building on a public forum model used by other science centers such as the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alice ApleyNurture Nature Foundation
In 2006, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Information/Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) division to create the Dan River Information Technology Academy (DRITA) for under-served high school students in rural Virginia. The only program of its kind in Southern Virginia, the program was designed to provide participating students with competencies in information technology (IT) and workforce skills. In addition, the program seeks to encourage students to graduate from high
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Irene GoodmanLorraine DeanMiriam KochmanHelena PylvainenColleen ManningKaren PetermanInstitute of Advanced Learning and Research
This National Science Foundation Informal Science Education project was a "Citizen Science" weather and climate observing program focused on the Central Great Plains region of the U.S. Volunteers of all ages, primarily self selected, equipped with simple and low cost instruments for measuring rain, hail and snow, were recruited, trained and equipped to help measure and report precipitation. This region of the country is well known for its extreme and highly variable climate with strong seasonal cycles, dramatic day to day weather changes, drought vulnerability, as well as the propensity for