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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This is a really interesting and informative thread for me. I don't know
much about market research, so I'm learning a lot. That, of course, means
that I have lots of questions. :)
One question is: What do the zip code analyses tell us about the demographic
characteristics of the people who come to our science centers? For the sake
of argument, suppose that 33% of the people who live in zip code 00000 are
Martians, 33% are Venusians, and 34% are Mercurians. If my zip code analysis
shows that in the last month 300 people from zip code 00000 visited my
science center, do I draw the conclusion that I can count 100 Martians, 100
Venusians, and 100 Mercurians as having visited from that zip code?
I would guess that market researchers use more sophisticated mathematical
models than that, so I'd be interested in the other factors that go into the
analysis. If the analysis is not more sophisticated, then how can we be sure
that our estimates are accurate? What if all the people from zip code 00000
who visited are from a very active Martian science club? In that case, the
demographics of zip code 00000 who visit the science center are not like the
actual demographics of zip code 00000. Do people face this in their actual
analyses, and, if so, how do they address it?
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Laura Myers
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 8:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Visitor and Participant Demographics
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
*
Hi Karen,
At the Rochester Museum & Science Center we're in the middle of a project
designed to better understand who our audience is (I should say, who our
audiences are). A piece of that is to look at zipcode data that we've
been collecting for the past 4-5 years and to merge our data with public
census data. I'm sure we aren't unique in collecting zipcodes from
visitors, but we find that people are almost always willing to tell us
their zipcode when they are buying tickets. The tricky part is making the
time to run the analysis. Zipcode and census data are just one part of
the project - we are also doing much deeper work with surveys and focus
groups as well. I'd be happy to tell you more about it offline - let me
know if you're interested.
Happy Tuesday,
Laura
Laura Farra Myers
Director, Museum Education
Rochester Museum & Science Center
657 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607
Office: (585) 271-4552 ext. 388
Fax: (585) 271-0492
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 13:53:00 -0800
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Visitor and Participant Demographics
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
*
I have been asked to develop a method to track visitor and participant
demographics such as age, ethnicity and income level for grant proposals
and sponsorship requests. I thought I remembered a previous discussion
on this listserv but checked the archives and didn't find anything. I
know that I can find general data for school group visitors on our state
superintendent of public instruction's web site. But I was hoping others
would share how this information is gathered for visitors and other
program participants at their institutions. If you do not collect this
data, please let me know why. Was it a privacy issue, too big of a
challenge or some other reason.
Thank you for help,
Karen
=20
Karen L. Hoffman
Grants Manager
Pacific Science Center
200 Second Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
ph. 206.443.2389
fax 206.443.6600
[log in to unmask]
www.pacsci.org <http://www.pacsci.org/>=20
=20
Pacific Science Center is an independent, not-for-profit educational
institution that inspires lifelong interest in science, math and
technology by engaging diverse communities through interactive and
innovative exhibits and programs in every county of Washington state and
beyond.
=20
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