Selected Reading

In preparation for this CAISE Inquiry Group Meeting, participants are asked to download and familiarize themselves with Chapters 1, 3, and 9 of the Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Projects and the suggested evaluation framework contained within.

This NSF report originated in a March 12–13, 2007 workshop about informal science education evaluation, and offers background about NSF's evolving reporting requirements and advice from evaluators working in the field about how to gather evidence about impacts of projects supported by the ISE program. This is a report is intended to help the field align itself with the new proposal submission guidelines and assist in reporting for the new online Project Monitoring system which is designed to track project outcomes and impacts. Our discussions, in part, are to help current and prospective awardees meet the demands of these new initiatives.

As a group we would like to discuss how best to think about the kinds of impacts web–based infrastructures can make in advancing the field of informal science eduction and collaboratively extend the framework to meet the particulars of assessing online professional development communities. As part of this we would like to think innovatively about what kind of evidence we are looking for and how this might be measured. We look forward to harvesting your collective insights into a several knowledge products that can be shared and commented on by the field.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or framing questions you would like to proposed in advance for the inquiry group, please do contact one of us below.

With great anticipation we look forward to a lively and productive meeting,
Kevin Crowley, Catherine Eberbach and Marti Louw