In 2011, ORG received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning by redesigning and expanding the "Jonathan Bird's Blue World" website; adding components to enable teachers and students to search episodes for specific themes, locations, or scientific concepts; and enhancing the lesson plans to explicitly match the content standards for teaching science. One of the major grant objectives was to make the "Jonathan Bird's Blue World" website content widely accessible as an open source via an Internet
The University of Central Florida (UCF) received funding from the National Science Foundation through the Informal Science Education program (# 0638977) to create a series of exhibits entitled Water's Journey through the Everglades (Water's Journey). The project deliverables included ten kiosks integrated into an expansion of the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) in Fort Lauderdale, FL, with the new exhibition areas opening in November 2011. The kiosks model aspects of Florida's ecosystems and natural history, highlighting the natural balance of the Everglades and the interplay between
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Susan FoutzKara HershorinUniversity of Central FloridaMuseum of Discovery and Science
This study showcases the two of the most recent exhibits in the Art/Science gallery at the Museum of Science: What I Eat: Around the World in 25 Diets and Bonsai: Creating Art with Nature. By analyzing information from two different exhibits that were shown in the same space, themes emerged across both exhibit experiences that can inform the exhibit team more broadly about the gallery's audience and effect on visitors. Evaluation Questions: In what ways are visitors interacting with the exhibits? What do visitors find most interesting about the exhibits? Which connections are visitors making
The exhibition Innovation Showcase focused on energy-related innovation and individual action. As part of a larger project, Innovations in Energy, the central visitor-focused question for this exhibition was: "To what extent and in what ways do the various components of Innovations in Energy serve toward meeting outcomes for the target audiences?" This summative evaluation of Innovation Showcase addressed this question by identifying how COSI visitors used the gallery space (particularly at the level of individual exhibition elements) and how they described their experience in Innovation
Frontier Scientists (FS) is an NSF-funded University of Alaska - Fairbanks (UAF) and WonderVisions (WV) collaborative project whose mission was to excite the general public about ongoing science in Alaska and the Arctic. The Frontier Scientists website (www.frontierscientists.com) covers a wide range of topics including: humanities, geology, biology, marine science, archaeology, ecology, chemistry, and more. At the time of the summative evaluation, it included 53 video clips (the major focus of the website), as well as a number of blog posts, narrative descriptions, and short bios.This
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Deborah PerryUniversity of Alaska - Fairbanks
National Engineers Week Foundation (EWeek) hired Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) in 2011 to conduct an independent evaluation of the Future City program (http://futurecity.org). Future City has been operating since 1992. According to EWeek, the Future City program is “a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCityTM 4 Deluxe software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; build tabletop scale models