IMLS Early Learners Collaborative: Year One Evaluation Report

This report summarizes the evaluation findings of the first year of the Science Beyond the Boundaries Early Learners Collaborative (ELC). The three-year project, funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), connects science centers and children’s museums to enhance early learner programming. In Year One, the ELC brought together five institutions to collaborate directly through regularly scheduled conference call discussions. During these discussions they shared their program experience, ideas on early childhood programs, and their thoughts on current early learner research. ELC also held a one-day Educators Workshop where early childhood staff from 16 museums came together to share ideas and discuss learning within the early childhood audience. This evaluation, conducted by the Research & Evaluation Department of the Saint Louis Science Center, was designed to assess the effectiveness of the collaborative. The main objectives of this evaluation were to gather information about the programs delivered by each partner in order to look into the similarities between programs that may inform program developers, to assess the Year One Collaboration and understand what the partners have gained from the ELC, and to evaluate other collaboration efforts such as the Educators Workshop. Appendix includes survey and coding schema.