Overview
In 2021, we worked with the Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI) to design and implement a baseline study that would measure the long-term impacts of the Because of Her Story (BOHS) internship program on participants. The program is a cross-Smithsonian initiative that matches interns with museum projects meant to amplify women's stories to tell a more complete American history, reach a diverse audience, and empower and inspire people from all walks of life.
Together, we articulated clear and measurable mid- and long-term outcomes for internship
This document is the final evaluation report for the Teen Science Cafes for Advancing STEM in Rural Places project.
A Teen Science Café is a free, regularly occurring event during the school year in which a local scientist, engineer, or STEM expert discusses their field experiences with the teen attendees. Ideally, a Teen Leader cohort, under the mentorship of an Adult Leader, organizes and implements each Café.
The Teen Science Café Network is a community of practice linking the various youth-serving organizations, institutions, community settings, and individuals that host Teen Science
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
Artificial Intelligence (AI), the research and development of machines to mimic human thought and behavior, encompasses one of the most complex scientific and engineering challenges in history. AI now permeates essentially all sectors of the economy and society. Young people growing up in the era of big data, algorithms, and AI need to develop new awareness, content knowledge, and skills to understand humans’ relationships with these new technologies and become producers of AI artifacts themselves.
YR Media and MIT’s Understanding AI project researched and developed innovative approaches to
Overview
In 2020, RK&A (now Kera Collective) partnered with the National Museum of Natural History to conduct a summative evaluation of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils: Deep Time, a 31,000 square foot exhibition that explores how Earth’s distant past shapes our future.
Our evaluation explored how visitors process complex scientific topics, such as climate change, mass extinctions, the evolution of life on Earth, and humans’ role in positively impacting Earth’s future.
Approach
We designed a large-scale evaluation study with four distinct but interrelated parts:
A
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Secrets of the Universe (SOTU) is a multimedia project that has at its core a 40-minute 3D giant screen film directed by a collaboration of K2 Communications Inc., The Stephen Low Company, and University of California Davis Department of Physics. To support and extend the impact of the film for these audiences, the project features an educational website with a variety of resources, including online videos of science content and characters from the film.
The independent evaluation team from Knight Williams Inc. conducted a summative
This by the project external evaluation partner presents findings from the first phase of the Co-Created Public Engagement with Science project (CC-PES). The CC-PES project has sought to bring together informal science education institutions, civic partners, and community partners to create forums that address socio-scientific issues that are important to audience being served. The project is designed to lead these collaborative teams through three key steps of public engagement with science: agenda setting (identifying the topic of interest and designing a forum to address it), decision
RK&A conducted prototype testing for the Game Changers exhibition with a general public adult audience (18 years and older). The Game Changers exhibition is being developed by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.
With assistance from Access Smithsonian, RK&A conducted prototype testing for the Game Changers exhibition with nine adults who identify as having low vision or limited mobility. The Game Changers exhibition is being developed by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.
RK&A conducted prototype testing for the Game Changers exhibition with three audiences: adults, female youth 10-17 years old, and male youth 13-14 years old. The Game Changers exhibition is being developed by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.
This assessment serves as the summative assessment of the IMLS-funded project at KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum: Natural History Mystery: Immersing families in a problem-solving game using museum collections. The assessment employs a mixed methods approach, in which both quantitative and qualitative data are collected. More specifically, quantitative data are generated from surveys that are administered to participants at the beginning and end of the game and analyzed by using descriptive statistics (i.e., mean, standard deviation, and histogram) and paired sample t-test
Through the T523: Formative Evaluation for Educational Product Development course, our team conducted a semester-long formative evaluation for the Museum of Science, Boston (MoS) Gaia Exhibit. The Gaia Exhibit (Gaia) is a new, temporary art installation located in the MoS’s Blue Wing exhibition hall. Gaia that strives to inspire appreciation for the earth and climate change awareness. The exhibit displays imagery of the Earth’s surface on a twenty feet diameter, three-dimensional globe. Additional exhibit elements include projected questions on the floor to prompt reflection and exhibit-