The Experiment Benches at Science Museum of Minnesota are a series of multiple-outcome participatory exhibits located within the Experiment Gallery. Designed to give visitors a large degree of control over their learning while promoting and guiding meaningful scientific thought, they provide an opportunity for visitors to create and set their own experiments in order to explore a given phenomenon or topic. As such, they are designed o be responsive to a visitor's curiosity, allowing them to follow a personally directed inquiry.
The purpose of this summative evaluation project was to
The impact of four half-hour science programs aired on commercial children's radio was assessed by Dr. Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research in a causal-comparative between-groups study with prebroadcast and postbroadcast questionnaires. Of 253 fourth graders, 34% listened to one or more shows of the Kinetic City Super Crew series. Significantly more girls listened than boys. Listeners and Non-listeners did not differ on background variables of ethnic status, science attitudes, science reading and television viewing, and participation in seven of eight common at-home science activities
This report presents the findings from a front-end evaluation for Stormy Weather, a major traveling exhibition on severe storms. This exhibition is being developed through a collaboration among the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, National Museum of Natural History, St. Louis Science Center, and National Severe Storms Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The purpose of conducting a front-end evaluation is to better understand visitors' perceptions and their baseline knowledge regarding a particular subject--in this case, severe storms. The
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi KornSmithsonian InstitutionSusan Ades