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
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
This article describes the front-end evaluation process for the Exploration Zone project at the Field Museum of Natural History. It discusses the value of front-end meta-analysis and who should perform such research.
In this article, Ben Gammon, Visitor Studies Manager, and Jo Graham, Education Manager, at the Science Museum, London ask, "What is the value of evaluation if nobody pays any attention?" They advise "audience advocates" on how to communicate research findings effectively with curators and exhibit developers and offer four exercises" to improve visitor awareness.
This report summarizes the evaluation of the first 20 months of the National Science Foundation-funded tour of the Traveling Experiment Gallery. The Traveling Experiment Gallery is the touring version of Science Museum of Minnesota's successful core science hall, the Experiment Gallery. The evaluation of the Traveling Experiment Gallery was conducted using naturalistic inquiry methodology. Depth interviews were conducted with 28 staff and six volunteers at the five museums and science centers which have hosted the exhibition. The evaluators also spent almost 30 hours observing visitors, floor
The Family Science Learning Project is comprised of a research study and subsequent program development designed to fundamentally improve family science learning in museums. The endeavor will be carried out in the Philadelphia area by PISEC, a partnership of The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Franklin Institute, the Thomas H. Kean New Jersey State Aquarium at Camden and the Philadelphia Zoo, joined for this project by the University of the Arts. To achieve the goal of fostering science literacy by encouraging families to engage in successful learning strategies while visiting science museums, PISEC has identified the following objectives for the project: - To increase understanding of the processes and potential of science museum-based family learning. - To apply this understanding to the development and implementation of effective program and exhibit enhancements in four science museums. - To involve existing staff so that evaluation and research become an ongoing component of program and exhibit development in the participating museums. - To utilize a multi-institution team approach designed to maximize impact, be cost-effective and be replicable in other regions across the country. The project has three phases. First, a research study using ethnographic data collection and focus groups will be conducted at the participating museums. This study will lead to the formulation of a set of criteria for successful family science learning and hypotheses about what is needed to facilitate this behavior. Second, utilizing these findings, the four institutions will develop four distinct programs and/or exhibit enhancements designed to foster positive family learning experiences. Formative evaluation and inter-museum collaborative will be integral parts of this process. Finally, the summative findings of the individual efforts will be compared to look for constants in successful programming across the sites. Results will be assembled in a handbook which will be widely disseminated to the field. In carrying out this study, the project will fill in the body of existing museum-based family learning research. The knowledge gained will give science museum professionals a new set of tools which can be used to increase the frequency of positive learning experiences in their facilities, and to broaden the diversity of visiting families as well. Because the subject matter under investigation represents a wide range of scientific disciplines, the results of the projects should prove applicable to many different types of informal science learning environments, including science centers, natural history museums, zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens. The collaborative nature of the project will serve as a model for similar partnerships among cultural institutions and universities in other large metropolitan areas.
Under the Small Grants for Exploratory Research Guidelines, the Association of Science-Technology Centers under the direction of Wendy Pollock and in cooperation with Lynn Dierking of Science Learning, Inc. will examine the literature, current methodology, and value of front-end studies in planning informal learning projects. The project "Front-End Studies: A Guidebook for Science Museums" will result in a publication available to a broad audience of practitioners developing informal learning programs. The objective of this work is to provide a resource that will encourage more extensive and fruitful use of front-end studies. Dissemination of results and abstracts of front-end study reports will also be posted on the ASTC Home Page. Research in science learning makes it clear that it is important for those who provide learning opportunities to begin with an understanding of what learners know, what they don't know, what misconceptions they may have, and what they are interested in learning. The more that the program design team understands about the learner, the stronger the learning activity. Unfortunately, not all informal educators realize the value of front-end studies and incorporate them in their program development protocols. The value of this research is to provide methodological guidance and research resources, along with clearly developed arguments, for practitioners interest in improving the conceptualization of the science learning activities.
Science Learning, Inc. will plan and carryout a two day conference that will bring together researchers, practitioners and policy makers in an effort to seek to better understand the workings of the informal science education infrastructure. Being promoted as a seminal event for defining and understanding the role of informal science education infrastructure in facilitating public understanding of science, conference participants will better define and delineate the informal science education infrastructure, hear about studies examining the nature and function of the informal science education infrastructure, learn about research models in other fields that are related to this question, and look toward the future by proposing studies and approaches to understanding this infrastructure even better. This is an outgrowth of a projected ten-year research study conducted for LA's California Science Center looking at the impact of a major urban science center on its community. This conference will be held in association with the May, 1998 annual meting of the American Association of Museums. Participants will apply to attend; it is anticipated that approximately 100 individuals will be selected. The conference proceedings will be published and broadly dissemination after the conference. It will include the nine formal papers presented at the conference along with summaries of the small groups' sessions and conclusion. The James Irvine Foundation and the California Science Center will provide additional support for this conference.