Front-end Evaluation as Part of a Comprehensive Approach to Inform the Development of a New Climate Exhibit at NCAR

Abstract:

In an era of discord in public views of climate change, communicating atmospheric and related sciences to the public at a large research facility like the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) can be a daunting challenge yet one that is filled with many possibilities. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Center for Science Education (SciEd) is responsible for education and outreach activities at UCAR, including the exhibits program. Over 90,000 people visit the NCAR Mesa Lab each year to enjoy a number of exhibits that showcase our community’s research.

The current climate exhibit is twelve years old, and with advances in our understanding of climate science and exhibit design, SciEd staff are developing a new exhibit that is as cutting edge as the research conducted at NCAR. Based on listening sessions with NCAR scientists, the following big ideas for the exhibit emerged:

1. How the climate system works
2. The climate system is changing
3. How scientists study our climate
4. Regional impacts
5. Solutions

The goal of the new climate exhibit is to reach people using a variety of learning styles, including offerings for visitors who learn by doing, as well as providing informative text and images (Hatheway, 2014).

Developers and evaluators are working together to conduct front-end, formative, and summative evaluations to understand of the needs of our visitors and collect ongoing data to inform development. The purpose of the front-end evaluation, conducted in the summer of 2014 was to develop informed data-driven strategies to move forward with exhibit design. The evaluation results to be shared in this session include:

• The demographics and behaviors of visitors
• Trends in visitors’ experiences
• Visitor input on exhibit design (Williams and Tarsi, 2014).

In this presentation, we will share the results, significance, and application of the front-end evaluation as part of a comprehensive approach to study both how we convey information about climate science and plan for the re-design of a new climate exhibit.