‘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
The Seattle Aquarium seeks to discover how toddler families experience its exhibits and how to best incorporate toddler family needs in future exhibit developments. The goal of this study is to begin to document toddler-exhibit interactions in order to better understand the Aquarium experience for that audience. The specific research goal was to determine which exhibit elements are attracting and holding the attention of the toddler family audience. A total of 47 caregiver interviews and 297 toddler observations across three exhibit areas were collected from January-March 2011 at the Seattle
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Andrea BarberKaleen PovisSeattle Aquarium
This mixed-methods evaluation, which was conducted at the request of the museum’s Communications department, answers two questions about a suite of special family events at the Burke Museum. First, this project sought to develop a profile of Family Day visitors – including any differences in audiences across individual events, and how visitors were receiving information about the events. Second, this evaluation sought to explore visitors’ expectations of and experiences at the events. Specific evaluation questions included the extent to which expectations and experiences aligned with one
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Emily CraigBetsy O'BrienRenae YoungsBurke Museum of Natural History and Culture
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
This report describes the findings of an evaluation of the K-5 school tour program at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. These school tours observed in this study are based in the methods of the educational model of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), but take place during hour-long tours in the galleries, rather than repeatedly over longer periods of time, and are integrated with other questions, information, and activities developed specifically at the Frye. The findings reveal positive correlations between the use of VTS questions by gallery guides and desired student participation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Valerie GrabskiLauren LeClaireAmanda Mae BomarFrye Art Museum
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
In early 2004 Explorit Science Center (Explorit) contracted with Visitor Studies Services (VSS) to design and conduct an evaluation of Explorit's Health In Your World Project (HIYW). HIYW is a traveling, science-based health education program for children and adults in low-income communities. HIYW features interactive experiments designed to make learning about the human body, health, and healthy choices fun and accessible. The program serves students in grades K-6, and is designed to engage parents and involve them as an integral part of the learning process. The HIYW Project was developed in