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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Hi,
I agree with what has been said already.
I've just finished a dissertation on evaluating and maximising the effectiveness of science shows... the findings relate closely to this question.
I proposed that science communication aims for five fairly immediate AEIOU responses. They are:
Awareness- encountering something new
Enjoyment- generating comments like "wow! that was fun!"
Interest- generating comments like "Hmmm, when I get home I'm going to find out more about this..."
Opinion, or attitudinal, change
Understanding or learning
Science shows, or visits to museums and science centres are not JUST about learning; understanding represents only about 20% of the possible range of responses. When the experience that generated these responses is supported by other experiences, longer-term changes to participants' knowledge, skills and attitudes may be measurable. Assessing these outcomes requires a very carefully designed longitudinal study though.
You may want to refer to the paper by T.W. Burns, S.M. Stocklmayer, and D.J. O'Connor, "Science communication: a contemporary definition," Public Understanding of Science 12 (2003): 1-20.
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ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Good Morning All,
In my humble opinion, we ask our exhibits to do too many cognitive domain "push-ups." What exhibits do best is place the visitor in the affective domain. With school administrators questioning us on the "value" of the field trip and "will it help our students do better on the test?"...... we are responding by evaluating the cognitive success of exhibits. These evaluations have found/will find that exhibits will never do an excellent job in the cognitive stuff, not because of the design of the exhibits, but in large part, for the simple fact that we rarely learn cognitive "stuff" in the standing position. I don't know about you, but I prepared for tests, exams, etc. from kindergarten through graduate studies.......... while sitting down. Standing up, means I can easily move away from the learning opportunity, be pushed on by the crowd, or be distracted by and eventually be attracted to another flashing or twirling gizmo. But, by golly, museums/science centers can do a great job in placing the visitor in the affective domain......and in the long run isn't that what true life-long learning is about???
Wesley
P.S. Why hasn't someone written a thesis on this sit-down/stand-up thing? Surely, somebody has written at least a journal article on this.....!!!
Wesley S. Creel
Administrator of Programs
Pink Palace Family of Museums
3050 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38111-3399
www.memphismuseums.org
(901) 320-6370 Direct
(901) 320-6391 FAX
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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
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Nancy Alima Ali
Science Educator
Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu, HI 96817
Phone:(808) 847-8227
Fax: (808) 848-4155
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Regards,
Terry
___________________________________
T.W. Burns BE, JP
School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences
University of Newcastle NSW 2308 Australia
PHONE: 61-2-4921 5434 FAX: 61-2-4921 6907
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
WEB: www.newcastle.edu.au/smart
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
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