RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
Magnolia Consulting, LLC conducted a formative and summative evaluation to examine public perceptions of the utility and quality of two labs/exhibits within the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Natural World Investigate Lab, Biofuels and Science of Scent. Appendix includes survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
North Carolina State Museum of Natural ScienceMary Styers
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington DC. It describes the CLUES project that provides STEM education opportunities to families.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
New Jersey Academy for Aquatic SciencesBarbara Kelly
This resource showcases a conference poster that the Wildlife Conservation Society presented at the 2014 Visitor Studies Association Conference and the 2014 Inclusive Museum Conference, outlining the work we undertook to explore the development of a proposed new family exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, "Safari Adventure," paired with selected results and takeaways. In 2011, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded WCS a grant to support our investigation and development. We asked ourselves the questions: How can zoo exhibits better connect people to nature? By what methods can we explore
This analysis of visitors’ experience of the "Congo Gorilla Forest" exhibition at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo was commissioned to investigate how this 15 year old exhibition is perceived by visitors, and if things have changed since an original summative evaluation in 1999-2000. Questions of particular interest were: 1. Have the characteristics of visitors seeing this exhibition changed? Has awareness or interest in environmental concepts changed? 2. Is the exhibition still appealing to visitors? 3. Are exhibit components such as the film and Conservation Choices Computers
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
In 2011, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) a Museums for America – Engaging Communities grant to explore the development of a new family exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, "Safari Adventure." Our 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. The IMLS grant allowed us to take a multi-faceted approach to inform our current thoughts about useful nature exhibit practices and what resonates with our audiences. Through evaluation, prototyping, visits to other institutions, workshops, and community focus groups, we explored themes of child nature play, intergenerational learning, community engagement, and barriers to access. We are disseminating the various reports and products from this process to publicize our findings to the larger professional community. The Wildlife Conservation Society, founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. We are the world’s most comprehensive conservation organization, currently managing about 500 conservation projects in more than 60 countries and educating millions of visitors each year at our five living institutions in New York City: the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. Our conservation programs work directly with animals such as gorillas, elephants, condors, and penguins, and we manage more than 200 million acres of protected lands around the world.
This report presents and analyzes the findings from a front-end evaluation conducted by Randi Korn & Associates (RK&A) regarding the concept for "Safari Adventure," an exhibition being developed at the Bronx Zoo by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Bronx, NY. The aim of Safari Adventure will be 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
An IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) National Leadership project with University of California Museum of Paleontology (lead), Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Museum of the Earth and University of Kansas Natural History Museum to create a tree portal website with learning research, curriculum material and guides on how to effectively use and teach about the tree of life for teachers and museum professionals.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of California-BerkeleyTeresa MacDonaldRoy CaldwellAnna ThanukosLisa WhiteDavid HeiserRobert Ross
This research proposed a revised theory of how collective environmental identity is associated with engagement with the advancement of pro‐environmental behaviors. The research comprised three activities that examined the experiences of three groups of people who claim zoo visiting as an important part of their life‐story: conservation biologists who describe zoo experiences as having significant formative role in their childhood development of environmental values; parents who prioritize zoo visits as an important cultural experiences for their children; and active zoo volunteers. This
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wildlife Conservation SocietyJohn Fraser
Our project for the Seattle Aquarium was to complete an exploratory evaluation of the Harbor Seal Talks, an element of the Marine Mammal Talks programming. These talks are conducted by either staff biologists speaking from within the seal enclosure or by “dryside” interpretive staff speaking from the audience in dialogue with the biologists. This evaluation was requested by the Interpretation Department to ascertain what the general content of the talks is currently, whether specific conservation messages are being transmitted, and how engaged audiences are in the talks. Our study found that
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lissa KramerColleen LenahanHal KramerSeattle Aquarium
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