Formative Evaluation Executive Summary: Latina SciGirls Rough cut evaluation Digital Dance episode and STEM role model video

Beginning in September 2015, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) initiated the three-year project Latina SciGirls: Promoting Middle School-Age Hispanic Girls' Positive STEM Identity Development. The cornerstone of the project is a fourth season of the Emmy Award-winning television and transmedia project SciGirls, to premiere in 2017, in this case involving six half-hour SciGirls episodes filmed in Spanish showing groups of Hispanic girls and their Hispanic STEM mentors investigating science and engineering problems. The television program will be accompanied by a series of family- and girl-friendly online role model videos in Spanish and English featuring Latina STEM professionals.

As part of TPT’s planning for the television program and role model video profiles, the independent evaluation firm Knight Williams Inc. conducted a front-end evaluation focused on gathering input from Latina SciGirls’ primary public audiences (Hispanic girls and their parents/guardians) and professional audiences (the project’s advisors and education partners). A copy of the report on this work can be found on the TPT STEM evaluations site.

The independent evaluation team subsequently undertook a formative evaluation to provide the production team with feedback on issues that arose from the front-end evaluation findings and from TPT’s early production work on the first Season Four episode and STEM role model videos. This executive summary presents highlights from the formative evaluation findings in two parts. Part 1 focuses on findings related to a rough cut episode, including its overall appeal, portrayal of the featured SciGirls and their Hispanic culture and family, depiction of the project and science process/engineering design scenes, and use of Spanish, Spanglish, and English. Part 2 focuses on findings related to a role model video, including its overall appeal and portrayal of the role model featured.