Evaluating K-12 Virtual Programs for Historic Green-Wood Cemetery
Client: Green-Wood Cemetery | Location: Brooklyn, NY | Funding: Institute of Museum and Library Services
We partnered with Green-Wood Cemetery to assess the strengths and challenges of their virtual school programs, which shows 4th and 5th grade students how cemeteries can be used to study history from the perspective of lesser-known people from the past.
OVERVIEW
In 2021, we partnered with Green-Wood Cemetery to evaluate their Green-Wood’s Greatest virtual school programs, which encourage elementary students to explore, infer, and wonder about lesser-known historical figures buried at Green-Wood using a variety of primary source material.
Our evaluation came at a time when many museums were shifting programming online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to understand the most effective ways to engage audiences.
APPROACH
To gain a holistic view of program effectiveness, we collected quantitative and qualitative data, including:
Online surveys completed by 4th and 5th grade teachers whose students attended programs
In-depth telephone interviews with 4th and 5th grade teachers who students attended programs
In-depth telephone interviews with staff facilitators of the programs
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
We found Green-Wood’s shift to digital learning was successful because, despite a totally new medium, they never lost sight of their distinct value—creating engaging opportunities for teachers and students to practice historical thinking by examining the tombstones of everyday individuals buried at Green-Wood.
In particular, Green-Wood’s focus on women and people of color enhanced teachers’ history and social studies curriculum, especially related to Black and Women’s history months. And, teachers appreciated the varied use of primary sources as a way for their students to practice historical thinking.
Green-Wood made improvements to the programs in response to the evaluation findings, including varying the format to include more interactive digital tools like Padlet and providing additional pre-/post-activities that incorporated resources unique to Green-Wood.
