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
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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Serrell & AssociatesBeverly SerrellMary T. Faria
This article discusses a study that investigated whether visitor or visit variables were the best predictors of satisfaction, and whether the predictive power of these variables would differ in different types of visitor institutions. Also studied was whether higher ratings of satisfaction would result in specific visitor intentions. Data were collected from adult visitors at three different institutions: Denver Art Museum, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and Colorado's Ocean Journey, an aquarium.
This article highlights findings from a study conducted by researchers at Jacksonville State University that assessed group visitor behavior at four exhibits at the Anniston Museum of Natural History. Researchers studied if male and female adults behave differently at exhibits when they are with a child than when they are with another adult as well as whether or not adult behavior was consistent across different types of exhibits.
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Stephen BitgoodChifumi KitazawaAndrea CavenderKaren Nettles
Goodman Research Group, Inc., (GRG), Cambridge, MA, conducted the formative evaluation of The Music Instinct project. The NSF-funded project aims to bring to PBS viewers the strong evidence of the connections between music and science, as well as to facilitate a deeper understanding of both fields. The Music Instinct project, presented by WNET/Thirteen, in collaboration with Mannes Productions, includes a two-hour television program, a website, and ancillary educational materials. The purpose of the formative evaluation is to obtain timely information to support and guide the producers as they
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Rucha LondheMiriam KochmanNivedita RanadeIrene F GoodmanWNET/ThirteenMannes Productions Inc.
The Language of Conservation was a collaborative project between libraries, zoos, and poets nationwide to replicate a project originally undertaken by the Central Park Zoo. The project model built zoo, library, and poet-in-residence partnerships in five host cities: Brookfield, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana. It was anticipated that the zoo exhibits would result in positive outcomes for zoo visitors who encountered the poetry, including increasing the conservation thinking and language used after a visit and creating a
The Exploratorium will develop a series of Internet resources on three popular topics -- cooking, gardening, and making music -- to encourage users in science education activities in relation to daily activities. The three-year project will include the development and testing of resources that explore the science behind these topics, using the notion that we all, consciously or not, are "accidental scientists" who engage in the scientific process in the course of everyday life. Target audiences include general public adults and youth. Components of the site will feature aspects of cooking, gardening, and making music that are intended to appeal to diverse communities. The resources will also serve formal education through the Exploratorium's national and local network of educators.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis will develop a 6,000-sq. ft. traveling exhibition about bones, helping children and adults learn about the science of bones, maintenance of healthy bone structures and the cultural and artistic uses of bones. Also, the exhibition will help inform upper elementary and middle school audiences of career possibilities in science, further an understanding of bones as revealed through modern technology and promote understanding of the skeletal system. A Web site, teacher workshops, kits and other materials and events will support learning through this exhibition.
The project, called Experimenting With Storytelling, involved working with four schools in East London and Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. Each after school session, with elementary school children and their parents, consisted of a cultural story or folktale (the ‘storytelling’ part) which had some science in it followed by an associated practical activity (the ‘experimenting’ part).