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.
This report is the summative evaluation of Moon Adventure Game. The Moon Adventure Game is a challenge-based immersive game, inspired by “escape room” experiences, which asks visitors to take on activities to help them think about what people might need to live and work on the Moon.
This project includes the development of a toolkit of new hands-on facilitated museum activities, and a mobile app with both app-based activities and do-it-yourself (DIY) activities. This evaluation report focuses on the formative evaluation of three app activities that are being added to the DIY app series.
This project includes the development of a toolkit of new hands-on facilitated museum activities, and a mobile app with both app-based activities and DIY activities. The toolkit expands on the Explore Science series from the NISE Network and will be distributed to 350 NISE Network partner sites. This evaluation report focuses on the formative evaluation of the facilitated museum activities at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
The SciGirls in Space: Exploring the Moon, Mars and NASA Careers Implementation Evaluation Report focuses on the STEM outreach component of the project for 15 girl-serving organizations who used research-based gender equitable and culturally responsive instructional strategies,NASA-aligned media and STEM activities with a focus on integrating of NASA women role models.
Life on the Edge is a traveling exhibition focused on educating children ages 8-14 and their families about how understanding Earth’s extreme environments helps us search for life in space. Created by Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY, the big idea of the exhibition is: “our exploration of extreme environments expands our understanding of life on Earth and the possibilities for life in our solar system and beyond.” Through five unique exhibit sections, the exhibition offers visitors information, activities, and questions focused on scientific exploration and discovery, life in space, and the origins
The Formative Evaluation for the Mars Habitat exhibit was conducted to gather visitor feedback on a prototype of the exhibit component. Data was collected in three rounds, and the exhibit component was updated as necessary between rounds. Evaluation questions focused on understanding if visitors knew what to do while at the Mars Habitat exhibit, how visitors interacted with both the exhibit and each other, and if visitors walked away with an understanding of the intended activity goals. These were explored through both observation and a follow-up interview. This report summarizes findings
The Front-End Evaluation for the Mars Habitat exhibit component was conducted to inform the project team about overall public reactions to the concept of the exhibit, as well as to gather feedback about content, activity and the potential structure and building aspects of the component. This data was also used to help guide the development of an exhibit prototype and the subsequent testing of related ideas, materials and builds. This document includes the full data set and results of the front-end data collection.
The questions that were used for this evaluation included three main focus
The Space and Earth Informal STEM Education (SEISE) project, led by the Arizona State University with partners Science Museum of Minnesota, Museum of Science, Boston, and the University of California Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and Space Sciences Laboratory, is raising the capacity of museums and informal science educators to engage the public in Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics, and their social dimensions through the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net). SEISE will also partner on a network-to-network basis with other existing coalitions and professional associations dedicated to informal and lifelong STEM learning, including the Afterschool Alliance, National Girls Collaborative Project, NASA Museum Alliance, STAR_Net, and members of the Association of Children’s Museums and Association of Science-Technology Centers. The goals for this project include engaging multiple and diverse public audiences in STEM, improving the knowledge and skills of informal educators, and encouraging local partnerships.
In collaboration with the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SEISE is leveraging NASA subject matter experts (SMEs), SMD assets and data, and existing educational products and online portals to create compelling learning experiences that will be widely use to share the story, science, and adventure of NASA’s scientific explorations of planet Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond. Collaborative goals include enabling STEM education, improving U.S. scientific literacy, advancing national educational goals, and leveraging science activities through partnerships. Efforts will focus on providing opportunities for learners explore and build skills in the core science and engineering content, skills, and processes related to Earth and space sciences. SEISE is creating hands-on activity toolkits (250-350 toolkits per year over four years), small footprint exhibitions (50 identical copies), and professional development opportunities (including online workshops).
Evaluation for the project will include front-end and formative data to inform the development of products and help with project decision gates, as well as summative data that will allow stakeholders to understand the project’s reach and outcomes.
This poster, which was presented at the Association of Science and Technology Centers Annual Conference on October 22, 2017, compares and contrasts evaluation findings across components of the Beyond Spaceship Earth project at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The project focuses on educating families and students about life and work aboard the International Space Station and generating interest in STEM topics and careers. Project components reviewed include an exhibit, a space object theater, and workshop-style programs focused on engineering and robotics for both families and school
In March of 2016, the Exploratorium transmitted a live webcast of a total solar eclipse from Woleai, a remote island in the southwestern Pacific. The webcast reached over 1 million viewers. Evaluation reveals effective use of digital media to engage learners in solar science and related STEM content.
Edu, Inc. conducted an external evaluation study that shows clear and consistent evidence of broad distribution of STEM content through multiple online channels, social media, pre-produced videos, and an app for mobile devices. IBM Watson did a deep analysis of tweets on eclipse topics that
Summary
Girlstart’s mission is to increase girls’ interest and engagement in STEM through innovative, nationally-recognized informal STEM education programs. Girlstart examines in this report how STEM education directed toward elementary school girls influences long-term readiness and participation to math and science learning. This report compares Girlstart After School participants’ academic performance to nonparticipant performance. Specifically, it examines how Girlstart After School influences science STAAR performance and course enrollment in subsequent elementary and early middle