While approaching these
chapters are the main things I’m taking into consideration is the fact that the
demographics and psychographics of my participants will be quite varied. I’m
not dealing with a homogenous group of students but quite a varied group. I
anticipate my participants to range in age from about 8 to 80. Therefore their
motivations, interests, existing knowledge, expectations, and perceptions all are
quite different. The beginning of the fourth chapter discusses experimental design
choices and introduces randomized controlled trial (RCT) Sue Allen the author
of the first section states that this is a powerful design although admits that
it can be potentially taxing for audience members. So I’m reading on. The next
section of this chapter, authored by Pat Campbell, titled An Array of
Evaluation Design Choices includes table 4-1: Sample Evaluation Design is a
very useful tool in comparing study types. Gary Silverstein gives us Using
Logic Models to Identify Desired Impacts and Audience Objectives which builds
on the previous logic model and creates a flowchart in figure 4-1 titled Logic
Model for the ISE program, which is another very useful tool in considering the
range of outcomes and evidence that can be demonstrated from the activity. But
for my project table 4-2 appears to be the most useful. This table, Impact
Worksheet: Example for Museum Exhibit on How Science and Engineering Drive
Hybrid Vehicles I feel can be modified and used in my project. The last part of
this chapter again authored by Sue Allen is also very useful for me because it
deals with specific issues and evaluation which happens to be its title. I
definitely have a diverse audience with a diverse amount of previous knowledge
coming in therefore I must create an assessment that will be used suable for
children, youth as well as adults. Now chapter 5 is totally aligns with my
project, titled Evaluating Exhibitions. It begins with the Broad Impact As
Applied to Exhibitions discussing, knowledge, engagement, attitude, behavior, and
skills, that was discussed in previous chapters but now in detail as it applies
to an exhibit. The author gives for examples; one on plants; one on robotics;
one on wastewater; one on articulating evidence in everyday life; these are
done with a great amount of detail that I feel may allow me to duplicate the
framework in order to create a viable assessment especially the one on
wastewater which is so close to my project. The end of the section has several
points to take into consideration from realistic expectations, using
nontraditional assessments to match visitors’ intentions and actions as well as
several other things to take into consideration when dealing with exhibitions. Chapter
6 deals with how to evaluate mass media such as television movies radio or any
other media. Although this section does not apply to current my project but I
am a tremendous advocate of using media in informal science education.
References:
Friedman, A. (Ed.). (2008) Framework for evaluating impacts of informal
science education
projects
[On-line]. (Available at: http://insci.org/resources/Eval_Framework.pdf)
Cameron,
ReplyDeleteyou have a good perspective as to how these recommendations from Friedman can help your project. I love the idea of a trip to the water plant. Back when I first took my Introduction to Microbiology course my professor actually took a whole unit explaining the water cleansing process and the structure of the sewers. I found it extremely interesting, and I am planning on going to the plant to check out that museum myself. As far as the evaluation goes I was wondering like in your project you have a very big range of ages then would it be easier to create two separate objectives instead of one objective? That way you can try to acomodate the abilities of your groups. I hope your project goes as you planned.
Karla Martinez
Great Post Cameron. I am excited to see your project proposal. I think it is great that your project will be providing an experience for a large age group range. I wonder how the interaction of these individuals will take place. Meaning, will the older individual in the group help teach the younger individuals? Maybe the younger indivudals will point out and observe some things that the older individuals didn't notice? I'm very excited to see the outcome of your project.
ReplyDeleteHi. Cameron,
ReplyDeleteI understand that there will be cross-generation participants involved in your project! That is an exciting news! You can either assess different groups of participants. Or you can focus on understanding the impacts on only youths. If you only focus on youths, in addition to assess these youths directly, another thing you can do is to do some surveys on their caregivers (e.g., parents, mentors) about their observations of these youths. The adults' observations on the youths will provide you different perspectives on how the project make an impact on these youths!
I believe you are organzing a very interesting and unique project! I look forward to reading more of your project!
Cameron, my project will include a wide age range of participants as well and the information presented in the reading was helpful in learning what to do and what not to do. I agree that the RTC is probably not appropriate for this type of project, but is a great tool. I really wish I could actually view and participate in all the projects that the class will be creating. It seems so interesting to read about your thoughts and the thoughts of the other students in the class and to see the creative wheels turning.
ReplyDeleteCameron:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your view on Exhibitions. Also if you will work with the water problems (water treatment, comes to mind, not only will you need to make in-roads with the evaluation of the impact of exhibitions but you might also want to look into the fact that it would be good to want to have the media exhibit your findings. I for one would like to see more of a project such as yours and if you had the exhibition on the internet with a youtube video from the media it would be awesome.
Great Job.
Ruben
The fourth chapter:
ReplyDeleteRandomized control trials is indeed a powerful design as you say because it is so objective; the way it works is this:
In RCT it is a Pre-Post study with comparison group (control group) in which the participants are assessed before and after experiencing the project materials, and their learning is compared with that of a control group who were also assessed twice BUT without experiencing the materials . ideally, audience members are randomly assigned to these two groups.