Kera Collective conducted two rounds of program evaluation to understand the experience and impact of Coastal Maine Botanical Garden’s (CMBG) Advanced Studies in Professional Horticulture programs, which vary in format from standalone lectures to multi-session certificate courses.
Since its completion in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge has become one of the world’s most recognized landmarks as both an iconic public works accomplishment and a popular tourist destination. In 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $3 million grant to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District to leverage this status in developing informal education resources to interpret the science, engineering and history of the bridge. Through this initiative the Golden Gate Bridge would become a model for other public works venues for providing informal science education and
While some public works are monumental civil engineering structures like the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Harbour Bridge, most are commonplace, even invisible, and they are taken for granted. The reason for existence of public works is to provide basic services, but both large and small infrastructure facilities also present opportunities to engage the public in understanding fundamental concepts of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). We review here lessons learned in the National Science Foundation-funded Golden Gate Bridge Outdoor Exhibition project. Using the title of
The TEAMS Collaborative received three separate rounds of funding from the National Science Foundation; Inverness Research served as the external evaluator to the project for all three rounds of funding. This summative report details the return on NSF's long-term investment in the TEAMS Collaborative. It outlines the overall contributions of the project to participating museums, individual staff at those museums, and to the larger field of informal science education institutions. It also summarizes the ways in which the TEAMS Collaborative was able to effectively capitalize on NSF's investment
A NSF EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) was awarded to Principal Investigator John Fraser, PhD, AIA, in collaboration with co-Principal Investigators, Mary Miss and William Solecki, PhD, for City as Living Laboratory for Sustainability in Urban Design (CaLL). The CaLL project explored how public art installations can promote public discussion about sustainability. The project examined the emerging role of artists and visual thinkers as people with the skills to encourage conversation between scientists and the public. The grant supported an experimental installation