Produced by Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, MN, DragonflyTV (DFTV) is a weekly television series of half-hour live action shows for 8-12 year olds, distributed by PBS Plus. DFTV features real children engaged in real inquiry-based investigations in and around science centers across America. Six 2009 episodes of DFTV focus on the world of nanoscale science and technology. DFTV Nano highlights science centers and university research labs while applying the DFTV “Real Kids … Real Science” model to communicate basic concepts and the scientific process in nanoscience. The themes of the
In the previous three years, 72 90-second Earth & Sky radio shows have been produced under sponsorship of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The impact of these shows was explored with a posttest-only experimental design comparing a treatment group that listened to nine daily NOAA shows focused on the topic of whales and a control group that listened to nine daily non-NOAA shows about Antarctica. Participants were randomly assigned to groups, which did not differ on the variables of gender, age, ethnicity, education, frequency of hearing Earth & Sky, and interest in hearing
The formative evaluation of Season 2 of Design Squad was performed in two parts. Part 1 included a field test conducted by American Institutes for Research in spring 2008. Part 2, conducted by Veridian inSight, included follow-up interviews with teachers whose classrooms participated in the field test. The teacher interviews were conducted in fall of 2008. This document is the Design Squad, Season 2 final evaluation report. It contains the following sections: Section 1: Highlights from the teacher interviews conducted in fall of 2008 by Veridian inSight. Section 2: Findings from the field test
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Veridian inSight, LLCAmerican Institutes for Research
This report presents findings from Goodman Research Group's evaluation of the following: (1) The NOVA scienceNOW series, including viewer feedback on Season Three and the knowledge gained from viewing the six new episodes, (2) The NOVA scienceNOW website, and (3) Focus groups conducted at the Science Café conference in June 2008. Includes survey.
Youth Radio, an after-school media production program, consists of a main campus in Oakland, CA, and regional bureaus in Atlanta, GA, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, CA. Youth Radio’s model is to engage underserved young people in broadcast journalism, radio and web production, engineering, and media literacy through media projects that are relevant to the students’ lives and communities. In doing so, Youth Radio prepares young people for college programs and careers in media. The organization also supports young people in their transition from school to career through an externship program
Goodman Research Group, Inc., (GRG), Cambridge, MA, conducted the formative evaluation of The Music Instinct project. The NSF-funded project aims to bring to PBS viewers the strong evidence of the connections between music and science, as well as to facilitate a deeper understanding of both fields. The Music Instinct project, presented by WNET/Thirteen, in collaboration with Mannes Productions, includes a two-hour television program, a website, and ancillary educational materials. The purpose of the formative evaluation is to obtain timely information to support and guide the producers as they
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Rucha LondheMiriam KochmanNivedita RanadeIrene F GoodmanWNET/ThirteenMannes Productions Inc.
CEG (formerly Veridian inSight, LLC) performed a formative study, including six focus groups, in October 2009 on behalf of WGBH. The focus groups took place in Boston, MA, Nashville, TN, and Phoenix, AZ. In each city, we conducted two focus groups. We divided the groups with respect to age (e.g., 6-7 year olds were recruited for one group in each city, 8-9 year olds were recruited for the second focus group in each city). A total of 41 children participated in the study. The goal of the formative study was to gather kids' feedback on the animated LOOP Six-Minute Sample. The focus group
Produced by Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, MN, DragonflyTV (DFTV) is a weekly television series of half-hour live action shows for 8-12 year olds, distributed by PBS Plus. DFTV features real children engaged in real inquiry-based investigations in and around science centers across America. Six 2009 episodes of DFTV focus on the world of nanoscale science and technology. DFTV Nano highlights science centers and university research labs while applying the DFTV Real Kids Real Science model to communicate basic concepts and the scientific process in nanoscience. The programs were very
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Barbara FlaggTwin Cities Public Television
As part of a National Science Foundation grant, Thirteen/WNET produced and posted online ten short-form motivational animated videos. To evaluate the impact of Cyberchase Do the Math videos, Multimedia Research implemented a pre-post same-sample evaluation with the following goals: (1) to determine the extent to which viewing ten short math videos online motivates further online and offline math-related activities; (2) to evaluate whether viewing ten videos changes interest and confidence in figuring out math-related problem activities; (3) to assess change in math knowledge related to viewing
In recent years academic, engineering, business, and other fields, have launched major research and development efforts into the study and application of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. In spite of all these efforts and the investment of millions of dollars, the general public has had little access to research findings and knowledge about the application of nanoscience and technology. Several studies have been conducted to assess public knowledge and understanding; they show that a large percentage of the public is not aware of this emerging field (as compared with other fields
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Dawn RoblesTwin Cities Public TelevisionJen HelmsMichelle Phillips
KQED's QUEST is a multi-year, multiple-media project seeking to influence the Bay Area's discussions about and activities related to science, the environment, and nature, with a particularly local focus. Rockman et al (REA), a San Francisco-based research and evaluation organization, conducted an evaluation of QUEST programming and activities over the course of several years. The evaluation examined general QUEST audiences, formal and informal educators' use of QUEST, and KQED's development and maintenance of a partnership among a number of Bay Area science and environmental organizations. The
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Elizabeth BandyMonnette FungKQED Northern California Public Media
The Museum of Science (MoS) in Boston is contributing to early endeavors of informal science educators to engage and inform the public about the emerging field of nanotechnology by producing 3-5 minute segments that appear on a regional cable news station, New England Cable News (NECN). Multimedia Research implemented a naturalistic post-only experiment with three general goals: (1) to assess the effectiveness of four Sci-Tech Today segments in engaging, educating and motivating the public to learn more about nanotechnology; (2) to appraise local news viewers' support for science and