RK&A conducted 56 timing and tracking observations of visitors, 20 exit interviews with visitors, an interview with the Cell Lab Program Manager, and interviews with 13 Lab Crew in the summer and fall of 2003. The Cell Lab succeeded in engaging visitors in enjoyable and educational activities. It also excelled in providing Lab Crew teens with valuable employment and life experiences. The concept and design of the Cell Lab - its level of interactivity, staffing, and resource allocation - offers visitors a unique experience. In some ways, the SMM was taking a risk by offering in-depth
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Science Museum of Minnesota
In the Spring of 2003, Rockman et al conducted an evaluation that was designed to explore children's viewing behavior, outcomes of viewing, the impact of the program's structural features, viewers' content preferences, and factors that motivate greater participation by viewers. Nearly six hundred children and twenty-five adults in three major U.S. cities participated in this study. Evaluation activities included: Five sets of student surveys: one administered prior to viewing episodes of DragonflyTV, one following each of the three programs viewed as part of the evaluation, and one
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Rockman, et. al.Twin Cities Public TelevisionJennifer Borland
In the Fall/Winter of 2002/3, RMC Research Corporation (RMC) conducted a summative evaluation of The Human Body film and outreach materials, including lobby exhibit, Teacher's Resource Guide, and Web site. These were the culminating activities in a series of studies conducted over the past three years related to The Human Body project, including formative evaluations of the film and each of the outreach components. These summative evaluations were designed to determine the overall effect on audiences of the finished products. This report contains sections relating to the major elements of The
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Alice ApleyMaryland Science CenterRalph AdlerWendy GrahamLaura Winn
Flip It, Fold It, Figure It Out! is a 1500-sq. foot traveling mathematics exhibition with companion take-home educational materials. There are two copies of the traveling exhibit: one for the members of the North Carolina Grassroots Science Museums Collaborative reaching over 500,000 visitors, and a second for travel nationally to science centers reaching an estimated 750,000 additional visitors. Take-home activity kits were developed for visitors to continue informal mathematics explorations at home. The activities included expand and extend the exhibit themes, offering multiple levels to meet the needs of K-5 students and their families.
The Parents Involved/Pigeons Everywhere (PIPE) project is a collaboration between KCTE-Community Television of Southern California, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. They are developing a three-year model project to engage parents in science education with their children through Project PigeonWatch, a citizen-science program run by Cornell University. The PIPE project will develop videos and written materials for use in a series of parent workshops designed for libraries and community science centers. The materials and workshops will be targeted to low-income parents with children in grades three through five and will be tested at 27 pilot sites around the country. A PIPE leader's Web Site will link all of the pilot sites. At the end of the pilot stage, the video and print materials will be widely available and the applicants will produce a publication that indicates strategies for using and building on PIPE and will provide assistance to new sites that wish to implement the program.
The goal of this Planning Grant is to use program theory as a tool in two informal science education communities and compare the processes and models that result. Program theory is built on the principle that learning and social behavioral change is the result of the cumulative effect of multiple programs, rather than a single experience. The participating communities are the Tucson Association of Museums (TAM) and the Terrific Resources for Environmental Education (TREE) organization in Columbus, Ohio. Each organization will work collaboratively using cross-group program theory and logic modeling to initiate a discussion on program planning and an intra-group evaluation. It is anticipated that this project will result in collaborations between the Tucson and Ohio informal science education communities and the creation of a plan for evaluation of the processes involved with this work.
Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC is planning and coordinating a visit by Chinese delegates to designated United States Science Museums toward identifying cooperative endeavors related to public understanding of science. Planning also will be done for a separate delegation of informal educators from Japan. Discovery Place will work with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) to assist in planning and arranging portions of each delegation's visit in order to help science center professionals from all three countries meet and learn more about each other's institutions, programs and priorities. Through this networking, U.S. institutions will be encouraged to participate in exchanges and cooperative projects. The meetings also will help all sides identify potential partners and develop the relationships necessary to pursue joint activities such as staff exchanges, cooperative development of exhibits and programs and design of workshops. Specific planning activities to be undertaken by Discovery Place include: Identifying appropriate museum and media production sites for the Chinese delegation to visit; Coordinating the purposes of the visit with these sites; Working with The Institute of Pacific Asia (IPA is the NSF grantee that is handling the administrative aspects of the Chinese and Japanese visits) to develop a specific agenda for each site visit; Coordinating with ASTC to arrange such activities as: Presentations by members of the Chinese and Japanese delegation in ASTC conference sessions, Participation by members of the Chinese and Japanese delegations in ASTC conference events and sessions, and Assisting IPA in developing an agenda for a one-day US/China delegation meeting immediately following the conference. This project provides rare opportunities for informal science educators and policy makers to explore a wide range of program options for the United States, China and Japan to inform the public and build support for science.
The Minnesota Children's Museum, in collaboration with the American Library Association will develop a project to engage children ages two through seven years old and their parents in exploring mathematics through hands-on, book-based math activities in libraries and children's museums across the country. The main elements of the project are: 1. A 1200 square foot exhibit at the Minnesota Children's Museum; 2. A traveling exhibit to ten children's museums over a six month period; 3. Five smaller versions of the exhibit will travel to 75 libraries sponsored by the American Library Association. Each library that apply for the exhibit must present a plan in which 50 percent of their exhibit audience will be children and families of the under-represented, lower income groups, and racial and/or ethnic groups. 4. Programs and materials will be designed to provide parents with the means to actively participate in their children's math education. The collaboration of the Minnesota Children's Museum and the American Library Association draws together two organizations whose natural constituencies are parents with young children. Project 1,2,3 is designed to be national in scope and creates multiple formats within which families can enjoy exploring math. Its goals and objectives reflect four messages: start early, math is everywhere, parental involvement and get into books. The project Principal Investigator (PI) Ms. Jeanne W. Vergeront received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Science in Child and Family Studies and Environmental Design, respectively from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she serves as the Vice President, Educational Projects at the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In several primarily Hispanic, low socio-economic school districts of the southwest in partnership with local institutions of higher learning, this 48-month project will develop programs and materials to attract parents of children of all grade levels and make them active supporters of a system that promotes good mathematical learning for their children. These programs and materials will help them become aware of what is happening in their children's classroom; offer them occasions to take on leadership roles in working with teachers, administrators, and other parents; and provide them opportunities for in-depth experiences with school mathematics. The materials will be initially developed and piloted in the Sunnyside School District. After revision from the pilot project, the project will be implemented in several other school districts.
Explore Evolution is a three-year project that uses a combination of traveling exhibits and activity kits to introduce the concept of evolution to museum audiences and 4-H groups. Six museum partners will collaborate on the development of eleven interactive exhibit modules on the following topics: disease in humans, eye development in animals, fruit fly diversity, sexual selection, hominoid development and extinction. The museum consortium includes the Kansas Museum and Biodiversity Center, Museum of the Rockies (MT), Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Science Museum of Minnesota, University of Nebraska State Museum and the Exhibits Museum of the University of Michigan. The inquiry-based activity kits will be modeled after the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's "Wonderwise" kits, funded in part by NSF, and designed for middle school audiences. An "Explore Evolution" website will be launched to support the exhibits and activity kits. Dissemination will occur through museum education programs as well as a consortium of 4-H programs in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Michigan, Nebraska and Wyoming. It is anticipated that more than 1.8 million museum visitors and 800,000 4-H members will participate in this project.
Math in the Garden is a collaborative project between the University of California's Botanic Garden and 17 organizations around the nation that work with underserved urban youth, as well as rural communities. The project will create a series of five (5) guidebooks with activities that bring adults and children together in the garden to learn the mathematics inherent in the nature of gardening. The materials and activities will teach mathematical concepts and skills, feature plants, flowers, and fruits as math manipulatives, promote active learning, and support NCTM and National Science Standards. The guides will organize activities into clusters for various times of the year and contain appropriate activities for elementary through middle school-aged youth. Partner organizations will coordinate a trial test. Afterwards, the formative evaluation will guide the revision and finally, national distribution of the guides will be in conjunction with Dale Seymour Publishers. A national Advisory Committee of mathematicians, botanists, science educators, math educators, botanical garden staff, and leaders working in community gardens has been established. The entire project will be evaluated at every stage of development for its ability to increase math skills, garden knowledge, and to encourage young people to engage in active, inquiry learning.
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Katharine Barrett
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) is a five-year collaborative effort between the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and King's College London. The purpose of the Center is to study the intersection of informal science learning that takes place in museums and science centers and formal learning that takes place in schools, and to prepare leaders in informal science education. Through the efforts of the center, new doctoral level leaders will be prepared who understand how informal science learning takes place and how informal institutions can contribute to science education reform. A Ph.D. program will be offered to 16 individuals at King's College London (two cohorts of eight) and a post-doctoral program to six scientists interested in issues of learning and teaching in informal settings. A doctoral program is planned at the University of California at Santa Cruz for 24 students, 12 whose interests are primarily in education and 12 who come from the sciences. In addition to doctoral level training, there will be a certification program for existing informal science professionals to better enable them to support teachers, students and the general public. That program will provide 160 informal science educators 120 hours of professional development experiences, and an additional 24 informal science educators with a master's degree in informal science education at UC Santa Cruz. A Bay Area Institute will be developed to serve as a central focus for all CILS activities. It will bring together researchers and practitioners; it will offer courses and workshops for graduate students; and it will provide a central location for reporting research findings and methodologies that focus on how informal learning institutions can best contribute to science education reform.