‘What’s in a Name’ is a collaboration between Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, the Encyclopedia of Life and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Its goal was to addresses three significant issues: improving public understanding of life on Earth through resources on how scientists describe biodiversity; furthering public understanding of the scientific process, as exemplified by the study of biological species; and creating ways to enable access to the vast amount of data available from museums and libraries. The primary audiences were museum visitors and online users; the materials were
With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Wild Center (TWC) engaged Insight Evaluation Services (IES) to assess the impact of specific outreach activities of the Northern New York Maple Project between September 2013 and September 2015. Data for this two-year evaluation study were collected via in-depth telephone interviews conducted with a total of 25 participants, including 16 Tupper Tappers (Tupper Lake area residents who engaged in backyard tapping to provide sap for syrup production at the museum through the Community Maple Project), four local school teachers
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
Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of the Evolution Wall and Research Highlight exhibit in conveying the main topics of the exhibit: biodiversity and the research of Burke curators. Evaluation Questions: 1.What is the nature of Evolution Wall and Research Highlight use by visitors? What draws their attention? 2.Do visitors understand that the exhibit is about evolution and biodiversity? 3.To what extent are visitors aware that Burke curators are involved with and conduct current research? Key Findings: 1.The Evolution Wall and the photos were the most interesting components of exhibit for
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ari EinbinderAmy DygertDylan HighBurke Natural History Museum
The Washington Park Arboretum (WPA) in Seattle is a 230 acre expanse of land which abuts Lake Washington. Apart from the Japanese Garden, admission into the arboretum is free and access points into the park are numerous. As such, tracking visitorship is challenging. For this front-end study the focus was on visitors at the Graham Visitor Center entry point. This point-of-entry has the benefit of both a parking lot and an established facility, allowing for a large amount of visitor data to be collected in a relatively short amount of time. The goal of this study was to better understand who
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
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This evaluation looked at one set of visitor behaviors - taking and using photographs - in the whole of Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (EMP|SFM). It was conducted between April 30 and May 6, 2010 by collecting semi-structured interview responses from 58 EMP|SFM visitors during their visits. We sought to identify 1) whether visitors were taking their own photos in the galleries; 2) how they planned to use those photos; 3) whether they planned to use visitor-generated material (in the form of the Taking Aim Flickr site) after their visit; and
Overall findings suggest that the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway exhibit attracted a different audience than the audience which attended the Coffee: The World in Your Cup exhibit the previous year. Additionally, visitors were highly engaged within the exhibit, and were spending a great deal of time in the exhibit space. Visitors to Cruisin' felt strongly that the exhibit was able to successfully present scientific and educational content, but in a more creative and dynamic way than they're used to. The appendix of this report includes the interview and observation protocols and tracking
The purpose of this summative evaluation was to find out how visitors are using and learning from the East by Northwest exhibit at the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) in Seattle, Washington. The exhibit tells the story of Seattle's Ethiopian community, highlighting the continuity of the culture and the contribution to our shared experience. To do this, three methods were employed: 1) tracking and timing observations, 2) exit surveys, and 3) analysis of guestbook entries. A total of 188 visitors were included in this study. Data collection occurred during January, February, and March
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marta BeyerAlex CurioJulie DoughertyJustine WalkerErin WilcoxUniversity of Wisconsin
This report represents the results of a summative evaluation study of visitor response to new interpretive signage in Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Tropical Pavilion. The evaluation aims to reveal the extent to which the new signage succeeds in providing the outcomes for the visitor experience identified in the Garden's Interpretive Master Plan (IMP). The IMP's overarching goal is: to create interactions and experiences with visitors of all ages and backgrounds which are rich, enjoyable, personally relevant, and communicate the key message,Plants are essential to life. The following content goals
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ellen GiustiBrooklyn Botanic GardenKathleen Condon
This evaluation examines visitor engagement at the “Science On a Sphere” (SOS) exhibit at Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA. Evaluators varied characteristics of the data presentation—such as topic presented, presence of a question prompt, and image rotation—and measured the resulting visitor engagement for each of the different treatments. Furthermore, the evaluation examined visitors’ interest in the SOS exhibit, as well as the extent to which visitors connect the exhibit to surrounding exhibits. This study examines different treatments to the SOS exhibit to determine the presentation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Washington | Pacific Science CenterDylan HighDanielle AcheampongEllie KleinwortTravis Windleharth
This report discusses a front-end evaluation that aimed to determine what physical and perceptual barriers affect visitors’ use of the Henry Art Gallery, and how visitors currently interact with museum spaces and staff. These findings will support guest service training and changes in the museum’s physical infrastructure. This study utilized three main questions for exploring the visitor experience at the museum: 1) Are there barriers affecting visitors’ use of the Henry?; 2) What motivates visitors to use certain spaces at the Henry?; and 3) What experiences are visitors having with Henry