Scientist-Educator Collaborative Workshop Workshop Evaluation

Held at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye New Hampshire Monday, June 1, 2009 through Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The quantitative and qualitative information we receive through the workshop applications and evaluations is extremely important to our work here at COSEE-OS. Each successive workshop evolves in response to the feedback we receive from the participants.

Before the workshop, we collected a wide array of information about the participants, including background information. Following the workshop, participants completed evaluations that asked them to rate a number of areas such as the effectiveness of the multimedia tools, their learning of the science content, and the effectiveness of concept mapping.

One of our key goals is to foster high-quality interactions between scientists and educators. Rather than let participants self select their teams, we "match make" educators using Ocean & Climate Literacy principles as our framework.

The Scientist-Educator Collaborative workshop was made up entirely of participants who work in informal education settings such as museums, nature centers and aquariums - a first for COSEE.

In the evaluations given to educators after the workshop, all the participants said that the workshop met (67%) or mostly met (33%) their expectations. Below is a summary of how participants felt about the overall organization and other components of the workshop.

At vast majority (more than 90%) of participants responded positively to questions about:

• The amount of new content and learning that took place during the workshop
• The new experiences and enjoyment they had as participants
• The length and pacing of the workshop
• Their interactions with COSEE-OS staff

When asked if the amount of time they had to interact with scientists was enough, the responses were split. Half of the educators thought they had just the right amount of time with scientists, the other half wished that they'd had a bit more.

Watch a video of educator Edmund Chun-Taite commenting on working with other informal educators during the workshop.

Quotes from Workshop Participants

"The task of making the maps certainly gave an opportunity to start a personal dialogue with the scientist."

"Personal connections to scientists make this more relevant."