Summative Evaluation of an Exhibition about Citizen Science at the San Diego Natural History Museum
Client: San Diego Natural History Museum | Location: San Diego, CA
We assessed the effectiveness of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s citizen science exhibition in communicating an inclusive view of science that bolsters visitors’ science identity.
OVERVIEW
The San Diego Natural History Museum (theNAT) contracted us to conduct a summative evaluation of Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science. The exhibition highlights naturalists past and present and their impact on science as we know it today. The aims of the evaluation were to explore visitors’ behaviors in and the meaning they make from the exhibition.
APPROACH
We employed two methodologies for this study: 1) timing and tracking observations of visitors to provide an objective account of how visitors use the space; 2) in-depth exit interviews (conducted in English and Spanish) to provide an understanding of visitors’ experiences in the exhibition as well as to explore their perceptions of themselves doing science.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
The exhibition intended to communicate that anyone–not just scientists–can participate in science. We found that the exhibition was successful in communicating that message. The museum effectively repeated the big idea. Moreover, it designed an exhibition that encouraged engagement, including social interaction, reading, and use of touchscreen interactives.
Further, the museum hoped for visitors, and particularly those individuals underrepresented in science, to explore their science identity. Positively, the exhibition helped visitors identify a new dimension of their science identity as a result of the exhibition. And, people of color were most inclined to be able to identify a new dimension to their science identity. The exhibition is a model for how to offer and communicate a broad definition of science that allows visitors’ to expand their own science identities.
