The Multi-Site Public Engagement with Science—Synthetic Biology (MSPES) initiative was an Innovations in Development project funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1421179) through the Advancing of Informal STEM Learning program (AISL). MSPES promoted public engagement with science (PES)—a model of mutual dialogue and learning between public and scientist audiences—through the creation and distribution of PES kits to nearly 200 informal science education sites around the country. Kits included two types of learning experiences: (1) forum programs during which scientists and teen or
How do afterschool programs view their local public libraries? Are they working with them, and in what ways? These are the questions that the Afterschool Alliance, along with its partners at the Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and the American Library Association, wanted to answer. Overall, our goal is to build bridges between the afterschool and library fields, so that both can share knowledge and resources to better serve our youth. While our work together has primarily focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education through
In 2012, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an exhibition utilizing objects from the former Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (QMDs), contextualizing them in the greater conversation about scientific skepticism and how people make healthcare decisions. The resulting exhibition, Weighing the Evidence, opened in December 2015. This kt, object-based exhibition is organized into four islands of artifacts with accompanying information and hands-on “Try It” interactives, which allow visitors to experience some
As part of the Exploratorium’s Indoor Positioning System (IPS) project, we prototyped a crowd-sourced, location-tagged audio app, called Exploratorium Voices, or Open Conversation, that visitors could use on smartphones to listen to short comments from staff, experts and other visitors and to leave their own comments for others to hear. This app was developed with Roundware, an open-source framework that collects, stores, and delivers audio content, integrated with a Wi-Fi IPS that provided location data used to tag audio recordings and determine where a visitor was to play recordings left
The Summative Study of the Nano Mini-exhibition took place during the spring and summer of 2012. After being observed during their Mini-exhibition experience, 455 visitors across six different partner institutions participated in surveys and interviews with NISE Net evaluation team members. This report begins by describing the key findings of the study in detail, with additional information about study methods, instruments, and two exploratory sub-studies found in the Appendices.
In the spring of 2014, the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) Public Impacts evaluation team conducted a summative study of NanoDays, a nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. In 2014, NanoDays took place from March 29th – April 6th, 2014. The Network’s goals for NanoDays events led to the following summative evaluation questions: 1. What is the projected public reach of NanoDays events in 2014? 2. Are ‘mature’ NanoDays events successful in providing an engaging experience and promoting learning of nano concepts for
This is the final evaluation report on the Laurel Clark Earth Camp Experience, a multi-component program to incorporate NASA satellite data into summer field programs for teens, environmental and water education for teachers, environmental after-school clubs and Earth Science exhibits at the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum.
Pushing the Limits: Making Sense of Science (PTL) is an NSF-funded program designed to build the capacity of rural and small libraries to enhance public understanding of science and math. The program provides professional support, technical assistance, and funding for librarians and local science partners to co-facilitate a series of science café-style guided public discussions with adult patrons using books and specially produced video segments. External evaluator Goodman Research Group, Inc. conducted the second formative evaluation, focusing on the professional development (PD) for the
The Global Viewport project was an integrative collaboration between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and. the New Bedford Oceanarium Corporation dba Ocean Explorium at New Bedford Seaport (hereafter, Ocean Explorium). The main thematic area that was addressed is Improving Public Earth System Science Literacy. A main objective of the Global Viewport project was to address Goal 1 of the GEO Education and Diversity Strategic Plan (2010-2015): “Advancing public literacy in Earth System Science.” For this evaluation the public interacted with spherical display content in an informal
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)Meredith Emery
In 2013 and 2014, the Museum of Science (MOS) partnered with Dr. Rob Wood’s lab at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to create an exhibition about Wood’s Robotic Bees (RoboBees) project. The Microrobotics Takes Flight exhibition (referred to in the original grant as the RoboBees exhibition) consists of three interactive components and an introductory section. The three interactive components are modeled on the three different engineering teams working on the RoboBees project: the Brain, the Body, and the Colony teams. The purpose of the evaluation was
To better help museum visitors make sense of large data sets, also called “big data”, this study investigated if there were generalizable ways in which visitors engage with and then make meaning of such data sets. This front-end study was designed to explore if there were different, distinct, and repeatable patterns intuited by individuals as they work with large data sets. This was a descriptive, process method using a complex card sort with an interview. Each card had the name of one food item written on it. Food items were diverse, including eggs, crackers, lasagna, apples, tofu and almonds
The University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) and the Museum of Science, Boston (MoS) were awarded an Informal Science Education grant from the National Science Foundation (#0813541) for the project, Responsive Virtual Human Museum Guide. The goal of the project was to use computer-generated character animation, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing to create interactive characters, or virtual humans, that could engage in face-to-face communication with museum visitors. During the three year project, the MOS and ICT project teams created
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan FoutzJeanine AnceletKara HershorinLiz DanterUniversity of Southern CaliforniaMuseum of Science