The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an Informal Science Education (ISE) grant, since renamed Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) to a group of institutions led by two of the University of California, Davis’s centers: the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) and the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES). The purpose of the evaluation was to gather feedback from museum professionals and the general public about the proposed 3D visualization project and its related components. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the current understanding
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
University of California, DavisSteven Yalowitz
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to study the professional development component of Mammoth Discovery!, a NSF-funded project. The professional development part of the project convened a group of museum professionals (cohort participants) from select children’s museums to participate in several workshops, developed and conducted by CDM staff, and gatherings at a number of Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) conferences. RK&A conducted the evaluation to measure the impact of these experiences on the professional practice of cohort
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
resourceevaluationPlanetarium and Science on a Sphere
Visitor Baseline Study of Science on a Sphere at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. This resource includes the Research Assistant Protocol, Observation Protocol, and Visitor Questionnaire.
Ice Planet Earth (IPE) was a three-year NSF-Funded grant, with a focus on building awareness and understanding of polar processes and designed to coincide with the International Polar Year, which took place from March 2007-March 2009. A key feature of the IPE project was the development of 'Ice Worlds', a planetarium style film designed for both general audiences and for students/youth. IPE was a collaboration between the University of New Hampshire, and the following institutions: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh; the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences; the Louisiana Art
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) received a NOAA-ELG grant for a three-year project, entitled Exploring Earth Systems: Expanding Data Visualizations Experiences for Museum Learners (or Data Visualizations). The project focuses on the development, testing, and distribution of Visualizations for the Earth and Bio content strands of the AMNH's Science Bulletins program. The Visualizations are short media pieces that use satellite data to tell the story of Earth processes on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere, with the larger goals of helping viewers to understand the dynamic
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan FoutzAmerican Museum of Natural History
In October 2009, the Tennessee Aquarium began an ambitious program, Connecting Tennessee to the World Ocean (CTWO), funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. CTWO consists of several individual projects, all intended to increase the ocean literacy of Aquarium audiences and to promote their adoption of an ocean stewardship ethic. This formative evaluation report summarizes the extent to which the Aquarium has made progress toward these goals in the first year of the project and provides an information base for identifying opportunities to strengthen