My Sky is a NASA funded project, which developed a traveling exhibition on astronomy. Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) created the exhibition in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). Formative and remedial evaluations were conducted at BCM while the summative evaluation took place at the first two venues following BCM: Stepping Stones Museum for Children (Stepping Stones) in Norwalk, CT and The Providence Children’s Museum (PCM) in Providence, RI. Formative evaluation of the My Sky exhibit was conducted between April 2013 and June 2014 to ensure that the components
Modern technology and innovation research needs to analyse and collect users’ requirements from the outset of the project’s design, according to the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach. Bringing in new services without involving end-users in the whole research process does not make for optimal results in terms of scientific, technological and economic impact. This commentary reports on research experience of stakeholder involvement and co-production in Italy, implemented in Earth Observation downstream services at regional level. It reports the participative approach and method
Focusing on the experience of working with Russia’s cultural, industrial and political sectors, this paper investigates how the development of new contacts and partnerships has contributed not only to the loan of material of historic significance to the Science Museum’s exhibition, but more broadly changes perceptions about Russia and its space programme in the western world. Addressing the multiple challenges involved – legal, political and security, among others – it reveals the importance of many of the space objects themselves as well as demonstrating how the Science Museum has helped to
Technology has dramatically changed learning opportunities in planetaria. In this paper, Plummer and Small examine planetarium professionals’ goals for their audiences and their pedagogical choices. The findings indicate that planetarium professionals place a high value on teaching interactively to achieve their primary goal of increased science interest and learning.
Bathgate, Schunn, and Correnti investigate students’ motivation toward science across three dimensions: the context or setting, the way in which students interact with science materials or ideas, and the activity topic. Findings point to the importance of understanding children’s perceptions of specific science topics, not just science in general.
This evaluation reports on the Mission: Solar System project, a 2-year project funded by NASA. The goal of the Mission: Solar System was to create a collection of resources that integrates digital media with hands-on science and engineering activities to support kids’ exploration in formal and informal education settings. Our goal in creating the resources were: For youth: (1) Provide opportunities to use science, technology, engineering, and math to solve challenges related to exploring our solar system, (2) Build and hone critical thinking, problem-solving, and design process skills, (3)
As a part of the strategy to reach the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Science Education and Public Outreach Forum Objective 1.2: Provide resources and opportunities to enable sharing of best practices relevant to SMD education and public outreach (E/PO), the Informal Education Working Group members designed a nationally-distributed online survey to answer the following questions: 1. How, when, where, and for how long do informal educators prefer to receive science, mathematics, engineering, and/or technology content professional development? 2. What are the professional development and
The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) project Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM) will engage the general public and children from schools and community groups with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) exploration of Mars through exhibits simulating control of robotic rovers on the surface of Mars as well as related educational programming. This front-end evaluation for BEAM youth programs provides information to the BEAM project team about the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and skills among low-income and minority young people who are part of the field trip workshop
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Saint Louis Science CenterCarey Tisdal