Gathering and evaluating program data is critical to our understanding of our programs’ effectiveness.
We are committed to continually improving our operations through a data-driven approach.
We are committed to continually improving our operations through a data-driven approach.
We strive to understand how our programs fail and succeed as best we can. Here are a selection of our findings so far:
Our family science program has been evaluated as a part of our NSF Be a Scientist grant. Evaluation reports for Year One, Year Two, Year Three, and Year Four are available for download, but we’ve highlighted some key findings below:
The summative evaluation can be found here.
In Fall of 2008 we surveyed 361 parents from 8 schools at back-to-school nights and in 2009 we surveyed 943 parents from 14 partner schools in South Los Angeles. The surveys were aimed at understanding what parents wanted out of the Family Science Courses and what further support they needed.
We also conducted a follow up phone survey with families after one year of their participation in a Family Science Course.
Technovation is a technology entrepreneurship program for young women in middle and high school. At the end of each Technovation season, we administer surveys to all participants (students, teachers, mentors, volunteers) to understand their experience and what they have learned over the course of three months. In 2014, this survey was a program requirement. 2014 also marked the first year a look-back survey was administered to program alumnae.
Highlights from the evaluation reports from 2012 and 2013 and 2014 surveys:
Source: Technovation Lookback Report: A Retrospective Survey of Five Technovation Cohorts (2010-2014)
Our online learning platform, the Curiosity Machine, was awarded a 2-year Transforming STEM Learning (TSL) Grant by the National Science Foundation. The grant covered a Curiosity Machine pilot program in the summer and fall of 2013, continued use in in-person programs through spring 2014, and summer camps in 2014 and 2015. The final report:
The full final report can be found here. The full evaluation report from Dr. Hickey can be found here.