Overview
In 2021, we worked with the Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI) to design and implement a baseline study that would measure the long-term impacts of the Because of Her Story (BOHS) internship program on participants. The program is a cross-Smithsonian initiative that matches interns with museum projects meant to amplify women's stories to tell a more complete American history, reach a diverse audience, and empower and inspire people from all walks of life.
Together, we articulated clear and measurable mid- and long-term outcomes for internship
The pilot test for Changemakers: Advancing Community Science Literacy was a capacity building program integrating strategic discourse & community change theory that identified a new path for advancing community STEM literacies. The results of experiment established partnerships with locally based non-profits, and a collaborative effort to address environmental justice and social disparities in areas threatened by climate change.
The evaluation was underaken with instruments developed for multiple research projects to support cross-project comparative analysis.
This instrumemts presented
RMC Research designed evaluation activities to provide formative and summative feedback to the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) on their NSF Pathways project, Forest Science Dialogues (FSD). FSD consists of a plan to engage with scientists at the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study and with the surrounding community using the Hubbard Brook Roundtable dialogue process in order to facilitate mutual learning. The purpose of this engagement was to increase public knowledge, understanding, and awareness of ecosystem science in the Northern Forest in order to enrich local dialogue surrounding
The San Diego Natural History Museum (theNAT) contracted RK&A to conduct a summative evaluation of the exhibition Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science and to explore how well the exhibition communicates an inclusive view of science. The goals for the evaluation were to explore visitors’ behaviors in the exhibition as well as understand what meanings visitors made from the exhibition, particularly with regard to how the exhibition’s messages about citizen science are resonating in the context of visitors’ science identity.
RK&A conducted timing and tracking
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
This report summarizes findings from a three-year study of the Time Team America: Science of Archeology project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project included a series of archaeology field schools for youth, four broadcast episodes and a redesigned website with a variety of information and instructional resources. The evaluation included both formative and summative components and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods including surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Includes interview protocol and survey.
This bilingual study for the Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine exhibition was conducted by the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The Against All Odds exhibition was a partnership between NMNH, the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC, and the U.S. State Department, and tells the story of the 69-day saga that ended when 33 miners were lifted to the surface as heroes. Against All Odds was one of the first bilingual exhibitions at NMNH, and the interpretive team chose to use bilingual graphics for three
In June 2010, the Gardner contracted with the Institute for Learning Innovation to augment the results of a large scale, Wallace Foundation funded quantitative study. Specifically, ILI was asked to conduct a focused, qualitative study that would provide in depth data about local visitors' long term perceptions of their Gardner Museum experience. Semi structured, retrospective interviews were conducted with 31 museum visitors, months after their Gardner experience. Key results include the following: 1) Study participants demonstrated a range of motivations for visiting the Gardner, but most
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jeanine AnceletIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumJessica J. LukeErin Johnson
The NISE Network Forums were created to provide an in-depth learning experience that would (1) enhance participants' understanding of nano and its potential impacts; (2) increase participants' confidence in participating in public discourse about nanotechnologies; and (3) build informal science educators' knowledge and ability to conduct this type of programming at their institution (NISE Network Public Forums Manual, 2007). In an effort to reach out to a more diverse audience, the NISE Network Forums Team translated into Spanish the existing NISE Net forum "Nanomedicine in Healthcare" to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth KollmannJane MorganNanoscale Informal Science Education NetworkRoxana del Campo
The goal of the study was to inform an interpretive and master planning process at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site by documenting visitor motivations, interests, experience, and learning outcomes of four key audiences identified by Eastern State: walk-in visitors (adult only), walk-in visitors (groups with children), prearranged adult tour groups, and school groups. Specifically, the report focuses on the following evaluative questions: 1) Who are the visitors to Eastern State and why do they come? (e.g., entry conditions such as demographics, motivations for their visit, expectations
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jill SteinEastern State Penitentiary Historic SiteJes A. Koepfler
This study was designed to assess qualitative and quantitative impacts that the enactor program has on visitor experience at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), using two temporary exhibitions (Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition) as examples. Of interest was capturing the unique visitor experience that enactors provide by combining visitor engagement, education and interaction. In turn, this affords opportunities to better consider enactor and/or theater-based programming for other areas of the Museum (temporary and permanent) in the
Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World, a 2,500-square-foot permanent exhibition, contains more than 100 rare, important, and beautiful books and manuscripts from the Huntington's collections, along with artifacts and interactive experiences. The content focuses on the changing role of science through the centuries, with particular emphasis on some of the astonishing leaps in imagination made by scientists and the importance of written works in communicating those ideas. There were 52 exhibit elements in subject areas of Astronomy, Natural History, Medicine, and Light. Feedback on the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Beverly SerrellThe Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens