Evaluation of Journey to Planet Earth: The Urban Explosion Episode

To provide feedback during the development of a second series for “Journey to Planet Earth,” an evaluation of one finished program in the first series was carried out with two different samples: an adult PBS-viewer sample and a upper middle school sample. The former sample represents the traditional audience for an environmental series. The latter sample was included to explore how the video series appeals to and is understood by the age group for which the outreach efforts are planned. The general goals for the research were as follows:
• reaction to the program overall with respect to various production qualities;
• assessment as to what was liked and not liked;
• general learning outcomes;
• perceived achievement of program goals;
• preference for proposed locations for the future three programs in the series.