Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) has more than 700 active adult and teen volunteers, the majority of whom spend much of their time speaking with guests out on grounds. Despite the thousands of contacts volunteers have with guests every year information about these interactions has so far been limited to measuring the frequency of these interactions and how they rate along a few customer service variables, such as friendliness and availability. In addition, many of these past measurements have grouped staff and volunteer engagements together, making it challenging to understand the role that
The Global Viewport project was an integrative collaboration between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and. the New Bedford Oceanarium Corporation dba Ocean Explorium at New Bedford Seaport (hereafter, Ocean Explorium). The main thematic area that was addressed is Improving Public Earth System Science Literacy. A main objective of the Global Viewport project was to address Goal 1 of the GEO Education and Diversity Strategic Plan (2010-2015): “Advancing public literacy in Earth System Science.” For this evaluation the public interacted with spherical display content in an informal
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)Meredith Emery
This report summarizes the evaluation results from the NSF funded Eight-Legged Encounters family event that uses arachnids as a hook to draw public interests towards science. The event involves informative and hands-on activities that bridge the gap between academia and the public, extending knowledge about arachnids to children and their parents. The Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR) at UNL was contracted to evaluate Eight-Legged Encounters. The data collection for this report involves five events and three audiences: adults, children, and the volunteers of the event. Two events were
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Nebraska LincolnEileen Hebets
The Bronx Zoo of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) engaged Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. to conduct formative evaluation and community focus groups related to a proposed exhibit, "Safari Adventure." The aim with this exhibit is to provide better connections to nature for families in our community and foster a life-long sense of environmental stewardship. The exhibit concept was born of the issue that, today, there exists a greater need to connect people to nature than ever before, a topic especially relevant for our community—part of the largest urban population in the United States
This final report summarizes the findings from three summative evaluation activities conducted by Serrell & Associates and the Oakland Museum of California with visitors to the newly renovated, reinstalled, and reinterpreted Gallery of California Natural Sciences in April and July 2014: the stay-time study, the cued questionnaire study, and the personal connections study.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Serrell & AssociatesBeverly SerrellMary T. Faria
The data collection for this project involved three audiences: (1) a post-event survey completed by participants at the 'Eight-Legged Encounters' event, (2) a club experience survey completed by middle school students in an after-school club, and (3) focus groups, observations, and end-of-course evaluations conducted with students in the BIOS 497/897 'Communicating Science through Outreach' seminar class at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska. Year two data collection was completed from September 2013 - March 2014. Appendix includes survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
Produced by National Geographic Television and funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Alien Deep is a multi-platform media project designed to increase public literacy about: the fundamental principles and concepts underlying ocean systems and functions, the importance and challenges of oceanographic research and exploration, and the impact of the ocean on humanity and humanity’s impact on the ocean. The centerpiece of the project is a five-part mini-series that premiered on the National Geographic Channel in 2012. In addition to the five episodes, which were also made
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Knight Williams Inc.Valerie Knight-WilliamsDivan WilliamsRachel TeelEric AndersonGabriel Simmons
This report presents findings based on the largest and most international study of zoo and aquarium visitors ever conducted worldwide. The study used a pre- and post-visit repeated-measures survey design to evaluate biodiversity literacy - biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity - in zoo and aquarium visitors. In total, more than 6,000 visitors to 30 zoos and aquariums around the globe participated in the study. Appendix contains survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
World Association of Zoos and AquariumsAndrew MossEric JensenMarkus Gusset
resourceevaluationWebsites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media
In 2013, Shedd Aquarium launched a pilot Teacher Badging program with a set of Great Lakes Science Certified badges. Badges include Intro to Badging, Great Lakes Basics, Invasive Species Defined, Environmental Literacy, Science Literacy, and 21st Century Skills, culminating in the achievement of the Great Lakes Science Certified badge. Each badge includes 3-7 missions that teachers must complete to be awarded a given badge. As of December 31, 2013, 262 people have logged into the site, with 499.75 contact hours recorded in 1140 completed missions. The project was partially funded by the USDA
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John G. Shedd AquariumHeather SchneiderStephanie Bohr
The purpose of the Handbook is to inform the co-creation of a new wave of iSaveSpecies interactives designed to deepen engagement in science and conservation at zoos, aquariums, and other living-exhibit institutions. The Handbook allows participating institutions to easily collect visitor data, to better understand how visitors currently engage at exhibits, and to apply visitor data to the development of iSaveSpecies inquiry and action tools. We describe some common methods of data collection including: timing and tracking of visitors, prototyping exhibit mock-ups, and language testing using
The third and final study, completed by Serrell and Associates in April 2014 in a program of visitor research at the Natural History Museum of Utah. The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) opened in November 2011, with a total of 51,270 square feet of public interpretive space. In 2012, NHMU began a multiphase evaluation process to help museum staff understand the experiences visitors have during their visits to the new building. The overall purpose of the research is to assess the degree to which the museum is meeting visitor needs and is having the desired impacts, so that future decisions
An evaluation of the Natural History Museum of Utah'(NHMU) "Trailhead to Utah" digital guide carried out by Frankly Green & Webb in March of 2014. The "Trailhead" is a digital ecosystem at the Natural History Museum of Utah consisting of touchscreen kiosks, a mobile guide, and a web portal for post-visit exploration. Since launching, the Trailhead to Utah system has suffered from low usage. NHMU wanted to understand why the service (in particular its mobile/smartphone element) was underused, and how it could be changed to offer a better visitor experience. In scoping the project, one key
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Natural History Museum of UtahBecky MenloveLindsey GreenPaul Tourle