Building Informal Science Education: Supporting Evaluation of Exhibitions and Programs with an informalscience.org Research Network

该项目的目标是促进非正式科学教育（ISE）资助项目的研究和评估报告发布网站非正规科学教育的发展和使用。研究人员打算使现有的网站对ISE专业人员更有用。项目负责人还将把发布的非正式科学教育研发项目评价报告综合成可读的文件。这一综合将涵盖ISE所有部门（例如，博物馆、课后项目、视频、广播、电影和技术）报告给informalscience.org的所有评估和研究数据。研究人员将通过在网站上发表、为研究和评估受众提供同行评审的出版物、以及通过在ISE决策者和ISE从业者会议上的交流，向ISE社区提供有关这些研究的信息。该网站将连接到更广泛的现有ISE网站，如insci.org、exhifiles.org和howtosmile.org，以及未来可能上线的服务于特定ISE部门的网站。网站和报告的撰写将由匹兹堡大学、明尼苏达科学博物馆和游客研究协会的一小部分专业研究人员和实践者管理。该项目将由顾问委员会持续评估，该委员会将提供关于网站和综合工作的年度书面报告。评估人员是熟悉综合和元分析方法的研究人员，来自媒体、博物馆和社区项目的专家，以及开发和使用专业发展网站的专家。评价将讨论鉴于现有的报告类型，评价报告的综合是否尽可能严格。报告和网站对实践和研究领域的有用性也将是咨询委员会关注的一个问题。该项目的长期目标是建立一个促进评估和实践之间更深层次联系的网络。此外，该网络预计将满足各个ISE部门的需求和工作方式，并在它们之间建立交流和协同作用。预计该站点在接下来的每一年都将变得更加可用和有用，并且预计它将对实践者、评估者、政策制定者和资助者产生最大的影响。

The project's goal is to facilitate the growth and use of the web site informalscience.org for posting reports of research and evaluation of Informal Science Education (ISE) funded projects. The investigators intend to make the existing site more useful to ISE professionals. The project leaders will also synthesize the posted evaluation reports of informal science education research and development projects into readable documents. This synthesis will cover all available data from evaluation and research studies reported to informalscience.org across all sectors of ISE (e.g., museums, after school programs, video, radio, film, and technology). The investigators will provide the ISE community with information about these studies through publication on the site, through peer-reviewed publications for a research and evaluation audience, and through communications at conferences focused on ISE policy-makers and ISE practitioners. The site will be connected to the broader set of existing ISE web sites such as insci.org, exhibitfiles.org, and howtosmile.org, as well as future sites that may come on line to serve specific ISE sectors. The web site and report writing will be managed by a small staff of professional researchers and practitioners at the University of Pittsburgh, Minnesota Museum of Science, and Visitors Studies Association. The project will be continually evaluated by a board of advisors that will provide a yearly written report about the web site and synthesis work. The evaluators are researchers familiar with syntheses and meta analysis methods, experts from media, museum, and community programs, and also experts on development and use of professional development web sites. The evaluation will address whether or not the syntheses of evaluation reports was as rigorous as possible given the type of reports that are available. The usefulness of the reports and web site to the field of practice and research will also be a matter for concern by the advisory board. The long term aim of the project is to create a network that promotes deeper connections between evaluation and practice. Also, the network is expected to meet the needs and working styles of the various ISE sectors and to create exchanges and synergies among them. The site is expected to become more usable and useful to the field in each succeeding year, and it is expected to maximize its impact for practitioners, evaluators, policy makers, and funders.