ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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I've written about this before... but will put out my point of view
once again...

I have been studying the literature on museum learning over the
last 3 years as part of my Ph.D. studies... and there is little or no
evidence that visitors have major changes in their knowledge from
a single visit to the museum...  when you try to evaluate changes
in people's lives based on a 30 minute to 3 hour experience it is
very difficult to show long term 'cognitive' learning.

This doesn't mean we are not making an impact on visitors... often
we are giving them real experiences with real things they wouldn't
have anywhere else... we are inspiring them to pay attention to
things in other aspects of life that they have first encountered in the
museum...we are getting them to be museum members so they will
not just have one experience but a series of experiences in the
museum that will build on each other for long term changes in their
beliefs and interest in science.

So, you will be fighting a losing battle to try to tell folks that one
school visit to a museum will make a difference in school test scores,
but you can be quite confident that their museum visit will help support
a series of life long experiences (museums, PBS, news stories, mags,
school experiences) that will build on each other to inspire science
learning.

David

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Taylor
AHHA Museum Services
  "Now I Understand"
     (206) 363-8126
1560 NW Woodbine Way
    Seattle, WA 98177
   e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
http://www.AHHA-MuseumServices.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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> From: Nancy Ali <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Informal Science Education Network <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 15:07:32 -1000
> Subject: Evaluation Suggestions Wanted
>
> Aloha,
> I am trying to establish an evaluation procedure to assess the extent to which
> our outreach programs accomplish our stated goals, specifically in terms of
> student learning.  Does anyone have any advice or recommendations about how to
> get a true picture of the impact our program had on students?  We are
> interested in both what content students learned and how their attitudes
> changed because of our program.  This is not intended to evaluate how well the
> students or teacher liked the program.  I am mainly considering some type of
> pre/post test that teachers conduct and return to us, but if anyone has other
> ideas I'd be happy to hear them.  Also, if anyone has evaluation samples they
> are willing to share, that would be great.
> Thanks,
> Nancy
>
> ****************
> Nancy Alima Ali,  Science Educator
> Bishop Museum
> 1525 Bernice Street
> Honolulu, HI 96817

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