Formative Evaluation: Safari Adventure

The Bronx Zoo of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) engaged Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. to conduct formative evaluation and community focus groups related to a proposed exhibit, "Safari Adventure." The aim with this exhibit is to provide better connections to nature for families in our community and foster a life-long sense of environmental stewardship. The exhibit concept was born of the issue that, today, there exists a greater need to connect people to nature than ever before, a topic especially relevant for our community—part of the largest urban population in the United States. Under the auspices of an IMLS grant, WCS undertook a multi-faceted approach to inform our current thoughts about useful nature exhibit practices and what resonates with our audiences through evaluation, expert workshops, and benchmarking trips to explore themes of child nature play, intergenerational learning, community engagement, and barriers to access. This evaluation document includes formative evaluation of several proposed exhibit experiences (interactive exhibits; a nature walk; live giraffe feeding) as well as a study conducted with community focus groups of non-visitors to the Bronx Zoo. The objectives of the evaluation were to explore: 1. How families use the activities and experience the program. 2. The overall meaning families construct from their experience, including how and to what extent the activities and program: a) help visitors forge connections to animals and the natural world, b) spark intergenerational learning, and c) encourage visitors to think about living with and caring for wild animals. 3. How the experiential nature of the activities and programs and close encounters with wild animals affects visitors’ zoo experience and overall learning. 4. And the reasons some families who live near the Zoo do not visit it and how they think of and feel about nature and close encounters with animals.