This presentation outlines the front-end and formative evaluation of the redesigned Ancient Worlds Gallery at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), set to open in the spring of 2015. The gallery will contain artifacts, props, and interactives pertaining to ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. The previous MPM exhibition featuring these civilizations was presented chronologically; for this new gallery, six themes have been selected to guide the visitor experience: construction, communion, community, communication, commerce, and conflict. When affiliated with the Institute for
WGBH received funding to develop and create NOVA Labs, an online environment that provides teen audiences with an online research lab, educational content, and the opportunity to engage with authentic data, tools, and processes to investigate scientific questions. This work has begun with the development of a first pilot lab, called The Sun Lab. NOVA Education created and launched this lab in early summer 2012. Examining the site in its pilot form, the Lifelong Learning Group (LLG) engaged in a formative evaluation to support refinements and improvements in the design of subsequent NOVA Lab
The Gallery of California Natural Sciences hosted four preview events before officially opening all sections. The target audiences for the evaluation of developing exhibits were Members and the general public with a focus on families. Researchers collected qualitative data in response to prototypes and developing exhibits for the Introduction and Oakland Sections, as well as for the developing Now and Then and Coastal Issues Lounges, and for the prototyping of live gallery animations. An exit survey was also administered to capture narrative, qualitative responses to visitors’ experience of
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oakland Museum of CaliforniaMary T. Faria
Formative evaluation of one of four pieces of the Marcellus Matters: EASE project. This study examined the effectiveness of an eight-week adult/community education program about topics related to natural gas development.
The aim of the work reported here has been to give an overview of the support that the informal sector provides for learning and engagement with science. In addressing this goal, we have taken the view that engagement with science and the learning of science occur both within and without schools. What is of interest is not who provides the experience or where it is provided but the nature and diversity of opportunities for science learning and engagement that are offered in contemporary UK society. Thus in approaching the work we have taken a systems perspective and looked at informal
The Sharing the Universe (STU) project was funded by NSF in 2007 to develop and make available resources and supports to deepen and broaden the education and public outreach (EPO) of amateur astronomy clubs who are members of the Night Sky Network. To achieve this goal, the project funded a development group: the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and a research group: Institute for Learning Innovation. These two groups were to work as partners, both to study the barriers and challenges that existed for amateur astronomy clubs to educational outreach, and to apply what was learned from those
Visitor Baseline study for Science on a Sphere at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Resource includes Research Assistant Protocol and Visitor Questionnaire.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Andrea GironDenver Museum of Nature & Science
Professionals from the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), New Knowledge Organization, and faculty from Hunter College developed Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think (WM) as a traveling exhibition with ancillary programs about animal cognition to be presented in both science centers and zoos. The project primary goal is to develop public understanding of the complex concept of animal cognition. Its secondary objective is to encourage sustainable science center-zoo partnership in the communities that host Wild Minds. The Wild Minds science center exhibition consists of discreet stand-alone
Our Year 3 formative evaluation of Go Botany, a four-year NSF-funded project focused on botanical learning, centered on tracking the continued development and the launch of the Go Botany Simple Key, which contains botanical data on more than 1200 native plants in the New England region. The project is a collaboration between the New England Wild Flower Society and three partnering institutions: The Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT; The Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine; and the Yale Peabody Museum on Natural History in New Haven, CT. During Year 3, the Go Botany Simple Key was
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Judah LeblangNew England Wild Flower Society
In August 2009, the Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG) at Lesley University contracted with the project's PI at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to evaluate My Dome: Defining the Computational and Cognitive Potential of Real Time Interactive Simulations in an Immersive Dome Environment, an NSF funded grant. The project focuses on creating interactive experiences in immersive virtual environments, and builds off previous work the PI and co PIs have done in developing films and immersive experiences in domes and traveling domes. The project includes staff from the Carnegie Museum
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a hybrid evaluation that was both front-end evaluation and formative evaluation. NHMLAC created a full-size prototype of a portion of Nature Lab, an exhibition that prompts visitors to think about LA's urban nature and their connection to it, while highlighting the main idea that LA is a biodiversity hotspot. The prototype was installed in the space where the completed exhibition will live, and the evaluation explored visitors' responses to the proposed exhibition content and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The mission of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is to inspire conservation of the oceans. From 2006 to 2008, Aquarium staff members and consultants conducted a series of qualitative and quantitative studies to assess the extent to which visiting the Aquarium engaged, inspired and empowered visitors to care about and for the oceans. The Inspiring Ocean Conservation (IOC) Project included four phases. During Phase I, the researchers consulted with Aquarium staff and conducted in-depth interviews with visitors to develop a logic model. The model outlined the conservation outcomes that could result from
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cynthia VernonSteven YalowitzAva FergusonVictoria Macfarlane