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
RK&A was contracted by Liberty Science Center (LSC) to conduct a formative evaluation for the development of a multi-touch table in collaboration with the Center for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis (CENTC). The touch table included four stations at which visitors could build molecules for crude oil products like aspirin and plastic water bottles. How did we approach this study? This evaluation explored engagement, usability, and meaning making from the CENTC multi-touch table, which was displayed at LSC in the Energy Quest exhibition. An RK&A evaluator observed and interviewed
The summative evaluation of the Farming for Fuels classroom program and family event was conducted over two years. Two interim reports were delivered with preliminary results about specific areas of focus. This final report described the overall evaluation study methods and results, and made recommendations for potential revisions and improvements to the program. The evaluator worked with the program team at the Creative Discovery Museum to generate a list of questions to guide the evaluation study. The questions covered each of the major audiences for the program: museum educators, teachers
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.
The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a formative evaluation for Places of Invention, an exhibition funded by the National Science Foundation. The exhibition aims to stimulate visitors’ thought about how people, resources, and spaces work together to support invention in historic and modern communities. Through formative evaluation, RK&A explores visitors’ use of exhibition prototypes (including barriers to use) and the meanings visitors take away
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and InnovationNational Museum of American HistorySmithsonian Institution
Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) conducted an evaluation study to learn about the Future City’s impact on students as well as to discover ways to enhance Future City for future implementation. In addition to exploring the program’s impacts, with this study we also had an opportunity to explore potential differences between students who compete at their Regional competitions only versus students who make it to the National competition. In collaboration with DiscoverE, CEG developed four surveys to collect feedback from students, parents, educators, and engineer mentors. These data collection
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
This report summarizes evaluative findings from a project titled “What Curiosity Sounds Like: Discovering, Challenging, and Sharing Scientific Ideas” (a.k.a.: “Discovery Dialogues”). The project, a Full-Scale development project funded by the National Science Foundation as part of its Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) program, explored new ways to actively engage both lay and professional audiences, and foster meaningful communication between scientists and the general public. Appendix includes survey and interview questions.
QUEST is a unique cross-platform science journalism collaborative that creates and distributes content for radio, television, interactive, and education audiences. The project collaborative comprises six leading public media providers representing markets across the country: KQED (San Francisco), Nebraska Educational Television (NET) and Radio, UNC-TV (North Carolina), WVIZ/ideastream (Cleveland), Wisconsin Public TV (WPT) and Radio, and KCTS (Seattle). QUEST is built on the success of the local, cross-editorial QUEST model, in which professionals from multiple disciplines--radio, television
Concord Evaluation Group (CEG), led by Dr. Christine Paulsen, was hired by WGBH to perform an evaluation of NOVA’s Making Stuff Season 2 series (MS2), website, and outreach activities. CEG also conducted a separate set of formative evaluation activities during the early stages of resource development. The findings from the formative evaluation have been delivered separately. The goal of the summative evaluation was to explore the extent to which MS2 activities were successful at achieving NOVA’s intended impacts: 1. To increase public understanding that basic research leads to technological
This annual report presents an overview of Saint Louis Science Center audience data gathered through a variety of evaluation studies conducted during 2013. This report includes information on the Science Center's general public audience demographics and visitation patterns, gives an overview of visitors' comments about their Science Center experience, summarizes major trends observed in the Science Center's tool for tracking educational programs, and presents highlights from a front-end evaluation of a new agriculture exhibit and a summative evaluation of the the Youth Exploring Science