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 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).
We explored a long-standing community science partnership between the Science Museum of Virginia and Groundwork RVA, a local organization that connects youth with opportunities to enhance greenspaces in Richmond.
The summative evaluation documents and articulates what SCIENCES has improved or changed, and in what ways. The final design of the summative evaluation was based on findings from the front-end and formative evaluations, including using participatory evaluation techniques to engage community members in discussing their experience with the programs and assessment of community needs and assets at the close of the project.
The goal of the summative evaluation was to address discrete program impacts in the context of the project, as well as the cross-program impact of providing a thematically
In 2017, Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) conducted a summative evaluation of Design Squad Global (DSG). DSG is produced and managed by WGBH Educational Foundation. WGBH partnered with FHI 360, a nonprofit human development organizations working in 70 countries, to implement DSG around the globe.
In the DSG program, children in afterschool and school clubs explored engineering through hands-on activities, such as designing and building an emergency shelter or a structure that could withstand an earthquake. Through DSG, children also had the chance to work alongside a partner club from another
This is the final report from the external evaluator of the project that created MedLab, an interactive learning experiences for Chicago area middle and high school students. This external evaluator's final report summarizes the outcomes and impacts of the five-year (2012-2017) funding compared to project objectives. The aim of the project was to use in person and online curricula, including a humanoid patient simulator (iStan®), to build interest in and knowledge of health sciences and health careers, with a particular focus on local community health concerns. An additional goal was to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christina Shane-SimpsonJohn FraserSusan HannahKin KongPatricia WardRabiah Mayas
In 2009, NSF funded development of Model My Watershed (MMW), a place-based, watershed cyber-modeling tool for middle and high school students and teachers. The online learning tool encourages students to investigate their neighborhoods and use scientific reasoning with real-world decision-making models similar to those used by STEM professionals to simulate systems and analyze processes. The project also sought to increase youth interest in possible opportunities in the STEM workforce and to aid in development of knowledge about earth science. This summary represents the first of a two-phase
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stroud Water Research CenterJohn Fraser
In MIT’s NSF-funded Terrascope Youth Radio (TYR) program, urban youth, many from groups historically underrepresented in the sciences, worked as paid interns who received training in radio production, reporting and writing stories with scientific content and audio storytelling to create environmentally oriented audio pieces that were engaging and relevant to their own and their peers’ lives. Teen interns participated between July 2008 and Autumn 2012. TYR’s goals were to improve a broad audience of teens’ engagement with, knowledge of, and attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and
In 2008, the WGBH Educational Foundation, along with the Association of Computing Machinery, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, under the Broadening Participation in Computing Program (NSF 0753686). The purpose of the grant was to develop a major new initiative to reshape the image of computing among college-bound high school students. Based on its market research results, WGBH developed a website and other resources that were intended for use by teachers, parents and students. Concord Evaluation Group
The Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship (YAA) is a yearlong, out-of-school time initiative that connects urban teenage youth with astronomy as an effective way to promote scientific literacy and overall positive youth development. The program employs the strategies of a traditional apprenticeship model, common in crafts and trades guilds as well as in higher education. During the apprenticeship, youth develop knowledge and skills to create informal science education projects: through these projects they demonstrate their understanding of astronomy and use their communication skills to connect to
Liberty Science Center (LSC) received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to develop, install and evaluate a 12,800-square foot, two-story permanent exhibition about skyscrapers. Skyscraper! is meant to showcase the architectural design and engineering, physics, and urban-related environmental science of skyscrapers. The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), a Maryland-based research and evaluation organization that focuses on lifelong learning in informal or free-choice settings, was contracted to conduct the summative exhibition evaluation. The purpose of the summative evaluation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kerry BronnenkantLiberty Science CenterClaudia Figueiredo
The “Being Me” program was developed to bring the educational process to life through hands-on learning that promotes children’s awareness of health issues and encourages scientific inquiry in an art-focused curriculum supporting National Science Content Standards (now Next Generation Science Standards, or NGSS). In 2009, the “Being Me” partnership – Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC), the National Children’s Museum (NCM), and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GW) – received a five-year National Institutes of Health Sciences Education
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Children’s Research InstituteJohn Fraser