Middle Ground, funded by the National Science Foundation, was an outdoor public installation developed by the Exploratorium and located in San Francisco’s Civic Center. This installation focused on the social science of how people think about others, particularly the cognitive basis for biases, judgements, and stereotypes, as well as more pro-social behavior and ways of connecting with others. Garibay Group conducted a summative evaluation to assess project outcomes.
Inverness Research and Oregon State University, with support and input from CAISE, conducted an evaluation of the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting which was held virtually October 19-21, 2021. The evaluation effort included observing the meeting, participating in debriefing the meeting with CAISE co-PIs, the CAISE equity audit committee, and NSF Program Officers; developing and administering a post-event survey; and analyzing data collected through both the survey and Pathable, the virtual platform.
This report summarizes the key evaluation findings. It includes the following sections:
The Wayne State University Math Corps is a mathematics enrichment and mentoring program that operates during summers and on Saturdays. The curriculum and the pedagogies in this informal learning program have documented success of supporting youths' mathematics learning as well as raising achievement levels in school. Through rigorous research and evaluation, this project seeked to analyze and understand the nature, extent, and reasons for Math Corps' success with youth learning in Detroit as well as the processes of program replication in three sites: Cleveland, OH; Utica, NY; and Philadelphia
This is the summative evaluation report for the “Understanding the Physics of Collaborative Design and Play,” a collaboration between researchers and children’s museum practitioners to design and build a physics-based children’s museum exhibit to provide opportunities for children and their caregivers to tinker with play related to the STEM concepts of momentum, mass, velocity, friction, and balance in the context of informal learning related to skateboarding. The exhibit, “The Science of Skateboarding” at the Iowa Children’s Museum, was designed and fabricated as a result of this grant.
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Deb DunkhaseKristen MissallBenjamin DeVane
DiscoverE hired Concord Evaluation Group (CEG) to conduct an independent evaluation of the Future City program. Future City has been operating since 1992. According to DiscoverE, 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 software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; build tabletop scale models with recycled materials; and present their ideas before judges at
The Formative Evaluation for the Mars Habitat exhibit was conducted to gather visitor feedback on a prototype of the exhibit component. Data was collected in three rounds, and the exhibit component was updated as necessary between rounds. Evaluation questions focused on understanding if visitors knew what to do while at the Mars Habitat exhibit, how visitors interacted with both the exhibit and each other, and if visitors walked away with an understanding of the intended activity goals. These were explored through both observation and a follow-up interview. This report summarizes findings
Future City, operating since 1992, is “a national, project-based learning experience where students in sixth, seventh, and eighth 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 software, research and write solutions to an engineering problem, build tabletop scale models with recycled materials, and present their ideas before judges at regional competitions in January. Regional winners represent their region at the National Finals in Washington, DC in February.
Future City’s cross-curricular
In spring 2019, WestEd conducted a pilot study using five playlists to understand the feasibility of implementing the playlists in afterschool programs and to discuss the potential impact of the playlists on student science learning. The research questions were: 1) How are the playlists implemented in after-school programs? 2) What is the potential impact of playlists on student science knowledge and skills? Student science knowledge was measured using the ScienceQuest test, and attitudes towards science were measured by the Emerging STEM Learning Activation Survey. Data were analyzed using a
Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science through Zooniverse was an 18-month pilot initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Foundation. The goals of this initiative were to broaden participation in citizen science (aka people-powered research) among religious and interfaith communities by establishing pathways for them to engage with science using the online Zooniverse platform, and to build positive, long-term relationships with these
NSF generously funded the Science Museum of Minnesota's exploration of whether or not the "theatrical gaming" technique could improve visitors' understanding of complex topics requiring conceptual shifts--topics like evolution. COVID disrupted our formal evaluation plans, but this report offers finding and guidance/best practices for other informal education institutions interested in developing this type of experience. Individual sections discuss our particular, three-phased project, theatrical gaming as a technique, storytelling, gaming, technology, and evaluation.
The Lineage project was a collaboration between Twin Cities Public Television and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The project included creation of a feature-length video program, a Virtual Reality game, and a set of hands-on activities designed for use by multigenerational audiences—all of which were incorporated as part of a series of seven Fossil Festival events at museums and other sites around the United States. This report presents findings from a set of external evaluation studies that examined impacts on families who participated in Fossil Festival events as well
This evaluation report highlights finding on the evaluation of the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), a cooperative agreement with NSF, is a partnership of the Association of Science-Technology Centers with faculty and professionals from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments, Oregon State University, Science Museum of Minnesota, Visitor Studies Association, KQED Public Media, Advisors and other collaborators. CAISE is working to support ongoing improvement of, and NSF investments in, the national infrastructure for informal