The summative evaluation with middle school students focused on three major outcomes: (1) To what extent did the film appeal to middle school viewers? (2) To what extent did the film achieve its intended viewing goals? (3) Did the implementation of school-based activities prior to viewing affect outcomes? A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest nonequivalent comparison group design was used with middle school students to evaluate the film and ancillary schoolroom activities. Intact school classes were assigned to one of two treatments: Viewing the film only (FILM, N = 225)) and viewing the film
The summative evaluation focused on four major outcomes: (1) to what extent did the film appeal to adult viewers? (2) to what extent did the film achieve its intended viewing goals? (3) what did viewers perceive that they learned from the film, if anything? (4) did viewing the film influence the audience beyond the museum visit? A quasi-experimental separate-sample pretest-posttest design was used to evaluate the film in its natural theater setting: 204 adults responded to the presurvey and 199 to the post survey. Thirty adult audience members were also interviewed by phone one week later
The Computer Clubhouse aims to help inner-city youth gain that type of technological fluency. The Computer Clubhouse is designed to provide inner-city youth with access to new technologies. But access alone is not enough. The Clubhouse is based not only on new technology, but on new ideas about learning and community. It represents a new type of learning community—where young people and adult mentors work together on projects, using new technologies to explore and experiment in new ways.
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Mitchel ResnickNatalie RuskStina Cooke
This report summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Informal Science Education (ISE) program. The program provides support for a variety of informal science education activities, including museum exhibits; television series and programs for youth or the general public; films on science and mathematics topics; exhibits or educational programs at science and natural history museums, science-technology centers, aquaria, nature centers, biological gardens, arboreta, zoological parks, and libraries; and educational programs and activities at community and
The effect of humor on retention of information was examined. The planetarium at COSI, Ohio's Center of Science & Industry in Columbus, was the source of the study. General public museum visitors were the subjects. A total of 495 adult subjects, ages 18 and older, were involved. Subjects were presented with one of two versions of a 15-minute taped general astronomy show. The two versions were identical except that one had humorous inserts. The humor in the humorous version was related to and integrated with the educational material and was presented at a fast pace. Humor was placed every 90
This is an interview with paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould exploring his personal background, career accomplishments, research on Darwinism, and views regarding religion.
In this article, John Chadwick, web administrator and distance learning coordinator for the Office of Cultural Affairs in Santa Fe, discusses research methodology and findings related studies investigating to who visits museum websites, why they visit, and what they do on these sites. Chadwick highlights results of a NASA-led study.
Questionnaires are used by faculty develpers, administrators, faculty, and students in higher education to assess need, conduct resarch, and evaluate teaching or learning. While used often, questionnaires, may be the most misused method of collecting information, due to htep toential for sampling error and nonsampling error, which includes questionnaire design, sample selection, nonresponse, wording, social desirability, recall, format, order, and context effects. This article ffers methods and strategies to minimize these errors during questionnaire development, discusses the improtance of
This formative evaluation gathered feedback from fourth graders in response to characters and stories proposed for further development. The general goals for the formative evaluation were To determine appeal of the proposed animated characters, given drawings and verbal descriptions, To assess reactions to the cast and storylines, given two short audiotapes with black and white illustrations, To evaluate comprehension of the storylines, To estimate viewers' interest in participating in the problem solving activity, To compare appeal of the two stories, To explore viewers' impressions of what
The Department of Geological Sciences at Rutgers, in collaboration with the Liberty Science Center, the New York State Museum, Palisades Interstate Park Commission, Appalachian Trail Conference, and ABS-Capital Cities, Inc., has a planning grant to develop a universal model that will encourage science education in conjunction with outdoor recreational activities in wilderness parks near urban centers. The initial effort will focus on the Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks and the Sterling Forest lands, all near New York City. Current plans for the full project include development of: 1) an illustrated guidebook describing the features chosen as "exhibits" at the sites, 2) a map showing locations of the "exhibits", 3) plaques marking the features of the exhibits, 4) proposals for new trails to access outstanding botanical and geological features, 5) a web site with virtual reality filed trips of the sites chosen, 6) museum displays and media programs at Liberty Science Center, the New York State Museum, and other sites, 7) regular field trips from Liberty Science Center, New York State Museum, and Bear Mountain Trailside Museum, 8) workshops for high school teachers, and 9) special project to get more public use of the park resources. During the planning stage the project will gather data on public interest, determine the most effective means of dissemination, identify and contact other organizations and scientist that could contribute to the full project, and develop a coordination plan and schedule for this complex project. Small examples and/or written descriptions of the web-site, the guidebook stops, museum displays, and field trips will also be produced in the planning phase.
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), in association with Baker & Simon Associates, The National Association of Biology Teachers, and Oregon Public Broadcasting is developing a comprehension educational project to inform the public about the microbial world and the pivotal roles that microorganism play in the life of the planet. The project components will consist of: Four One Hour Prime Time Television Programs Curriculum Guide Community Microbial Activity Guides Community Dissemination Library Exhibition Companion Trade Book World Wide Web Home Page The Principal Investigator will be Cynthia A. Needham, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Tufts University School of Medicine. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology. The Executive Producer for the television series is Peter Baker who recently headed production of The Astronomers and has produced numerous television series for PBS and for the BBC. Barry Marrs of Recombinant BioCatallysis, Inc., and former Director of Life Sciences for Central Research and Development of the E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company will be the Science Advisory Team Leader and will be the liaison between the Science Advisory Panel and the production staff. The advisory committee will consist of: Rita Colwell, President, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute Yolonda George, Deputy director, Education and Human Resources Programs, AAAS Alice Huang, Dean for Science and Professor of Biology at New York University Holger Jannasch, Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Mary Lindstrom, Professor, University of Washington David Pramer, Assoc. Vice President for Research at Rutgers Moselio Schaechter, Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University Steve Morse, Assistant Professor of Biology at Rockefeller University Henry William s, Vice President for Research, University of Maryland Graduate School, Baltimore Ralph Wolfe, Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois Bonnie Van Dorn, Executive Director, Association of Science-Technology Centers.
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Cynthia NeedhamWayne CarleyBarbara Flagg
The Franklin Institute proposes to establish the Science Learning Network (SLN), a unique online collaborative of science museums, industry and schools to support the teaching and learning of science, mathematics and technology (SMT) in grades K-8. The SLN will integrate the educational resources offered by science/technology centers with the power of telecomputing networking to provide powerful new support for teacher development and science learning. By December 1997 the SLN will develop and evaluate the following: UniVERSE - an online SMT database and software package which will provide interactive capabilities to actively and intelligently assist K-8 classroom teachers in their Internet explorations, much like an electronic "librarian." Online Museum Collaborative - a national consortium of science museums (The Franklin Institute, the Exploratorium, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of Science - Boston, and Science Museum of Minnesota) that will pool their resources and expertise to create online assets and provide ongoing professional development on telecomputing networking for precollege SMT teachers. Online Demonstration Schools - a network of K-8 schools, working in collaboration with consortium museums and Unisys Corporation volunteers as demonstration sites for online teaching and learning in SMT. Over the course of three years, the SLN will provide direct support to 180 teachers and 3,000 K-8 students in the online demonstration schools. Through existing teacher networks, each museum will offer professional development for an additional 200 teachers each year. The Urban Systemic Initiatives in Philadelphia and Miami offer the potential for broader, systemic impact in those cities. By the end of the grant period, the SLN will provide field- tested models of a new kind of online SMT community through the collaboration of science museums with industry and schools. The sustainable impact of the SLN will be assured by UniVERSE's status as a publicly accessible database and software package and the development of the national consortium of online museums, whose network resources will be made available on an ongoing basis to educators. The three-year formative development of the online demonstration schools will contribute vital data to precollegiate school reform in SMT, showing how schools build capacity to become members of the online community and demonstrating how teaching and learning are enhanced by online resources. Unisys Corporation has pledged its support to this project and will provide matching funds for up to 40% of the total NSF award.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BaumannWayne RansomPaul Helfrich