The Lineage project was a collaboration between Twin Cities Public Television and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The project included creation of a feature-length video program, a Virtual Reality game, and a set of hands-on activities designed for use by multigenerational audiences—all of which were incorporated as part of a series of seven Fossil Festival events at museums and other sites around the United States. This report presents findings from a set of external evaluation studies that examined impacts on families who participated in Fossil Festival events as well
Frontier Scientists is comprised of a website and portfolio of videos created for distribution web-wide and through television broadcast. The goal of this program is to excite the general public about ongoing science in Alaska and the Arctic. This is the summary evaluation of a three-year National Science Foundation grant received by Frontier Scientists. Frontier Scientists contracted PEER Associates to conduct the evaluation. Over the course of the three years, the evaluation was focused on both formative (intended to inform and improve programming) and summative (what has the program
Earth & Sky is a 90 second radio science series about environmental sciences, earth sciences and astronomy. Multimedia Research implemented a summative evaluation of the series, utilizing a survey mailed to respondents to a radio contest held just prior to the broadcast of Earth & Sky in eight commercial radio markets. A total of 152 surveys were returned (43% return rate). The survey is in the report Appendix. The series makes science accessible and interesting to the listening audience and generates excitement about science. The programs were perceived as affecting listeners'
In the previous three years, 144 90-second Earth & Sky radio shows have been produced under sponsorship of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The impact of these shows was explored with a posttest-only experimental design comparing a treatment group that listened to nine daily NASA shows focused on the topic of Antarctica and a control group that listened to nine daily non-NASA shows about whales. Participants were randomly assigned to groups, which did not differ on the variables of gender, age, ethnicity, education, frequency of hearing Earth & Sky, and interest in hearing
This article summarizes summative evaluation of the impact on public radio listeners of Earth & Sky, a short-format science radio program airing daily on more than 1,000 commerical and public radio stations in the U.S. as well as on satellite and Internet radio outlets. Earth & Sky’s goals are to make science accessible and interesting and to increase science literacy by providing daily doses of science to listeners with a range of science backgrounds, knowledge and interest. Subsequent to listening to Earth & Sky, the producers hope listeners may be motivated to turn to other sources of
Earth & Sky is a daily short-format science series for both commercial and public radio. Produced by EarthTalk, Inc. of Austin, TX, the series is hosted by Deborah Byrd and Joel Block and consists of 90-second programs on a wide variety of topics mostly drawn from environmental sciences, earth sciences and astronomy. With support from the National Science Foundation, Multimedia Research presents the second study of a two-part summative evaluation on the impact of Earth & Sky on public radio listeners, focusing on traditional formats as well as the new “Edge of Discovery” programming that
Earth & Sky is a daily short-format science series for both commercial and public radio. Produced by EarthTalk, Inc. of Austin, TX, the series is hosted by Deborah Byrd and Joel Block and consists of 90-second programs on a wide variety of topics mostly drawn from environmental sciences, earth sciences and astronomy. With support from the National Science Foundation, Multimedia Research presents the first study of a two-part summative evaluation on the impact of Earth & Sky on public radio listeners, focusing on traditional formats as well as the new “Edge of Discovery” programming that
Earth & Sky is a two-minute public radio science series about environmental sciences, earth sciences, and astronomy. As broadcast of the series expanded across the U.S., Multimedia Research implemented summative evaluations of listeners in three different radio markets. The evaluations focus on whether listening to the series influences adults' knowledge of, interest in, and attitudes toward science and whether the series affects listeners' science-related activities.
Talk of the Nation: Science Friday is a weekly two-hour science talk show hosted by science correspondent Ira Flatow. This summative evaluation implemented by Multimedia Research involved collecting information via a two-sided one-page mailed survey to minority and white scientists in virtually all of Science Friday's broadcast areas in the lower 48 states. Data were collected from September to June, 1999-2000. The main thrust of this evaluation was to explore possible differences in the way ethnic groups (white, black, Spanish-origin) respond to Science Friday. Scientists were chosen as
NOVA Labs (www.pbs.org/nova/labs) is a web-based platform designed for use by educators, students, and teens to engage learners with authentic data, processes, and tools of working scientists. The present evaluation study sought to investigate the outcomes achieved by users of the third NOVA Labs platform developed: Cloud Lab. The intended outcomes identified for student users were that they would: • Be able to successfully work with the real data provided in the Cloud Lab; • Demonstrate ability to interpret and use scientific data and tools; • Engage with real scientific data through the
This report summarizes findings from a three-year study of the Time Team America: Science of Archeology project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project included a series of archaeology field schools for youth, four broadcast episodes and a redesigned website with a variety of information and instructional resources. The evaluation included both formative and summative components and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods including surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Includes interview protocol and survey.