NISE Net Exhibits Formative Evaluation July 2006

Report date: July, 2006

Overview

Evaluation Title:

Date of report:

07/2006

Contact:

Kirsten Ellenbogen [1]

Permissions

[2]
Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

General Description:

Cued interviews took place with 119 visitors on Thursday, July 20, 2006 at the Science Museum of Minnesota during the NISE Exhibits and Programs Workshop. Visitors were recruited to come into Discovery Hall, try out one of the 12 NISE exhibit prototypes, and provide their feedback.

Major Findings:

Visitors were asked, “In your own words, what would you say the exhibit was trying to show?” Of the 119 visitors interviewed, the actual vocabulary word “nano” was only mentioned 16% of the time. This raises the question of whether or not it is important for visitors to walk away knowing the word “nano.” When looking at the main messages for the individual exhibits and the NISE Exhibits and Programs overall main messages, the vocabulary word “nano” is often included. However, visitors use a number of nano-related concepts that are important to the main messages of NISE’s work. Some of these concepts include the future of technology, scale, and using science to help humans.

Categorize

Evaluation type:

formative/remedial

Type of product(s) studied:

Exhibit

Method(s) of data collection:

interviews
observations
surveys

Resources

Documents:

nise_net_formative_exhibits_evaluation_july_2006.pdf [3]

Author(s):

Kirsten Ellenbogen

Associated product(s):

Introduction to Nanotechnology Exhibition [4]

Nanomedicine Exhibition [5]

Mixing Molecules [6]

Treating Disease [7]

Creating Nanomaterials [8]

Detecting Disease [9]

At the Nanoscale [10]

Nano Buzz [11]

NanoLab [12]

Nanotechnology: Fact or Fiction? [13]

Three Drops [14]

Bump and Roll [15]