My Sky Tonight: Summative Evaluation

December 28th, 2018 | EVALUATION

This is the summative evaluation for the My Sky Tonight: Early Childhood Pathways to Astronomy is a National Science Foundation funded Full-Scale Development project that was designed to support informal science education practitioner’s ability to provide astronomy learning for young children ages 3-5 years. Based on prior research and assessment of the field, the project team identified that many informal educators lack the astronomy content, interpretive strategies, and confidence they need to effectively engage audiences of families with preschool-aged children. Three mechanisms were identified to address this need: 1) An Early Astronomy Toolkit for ISE practitioners that focused on what children observe on an everyday basis, 2) Professional Development Workshops to train practitioners to effectively use toolkit activities and materials, and 3) A Community of Practice to support capacity-building among educators in this area. Taken together, these deliverables formed a coherent approach to how early childhood astronomy can be characterized and delivered by Informal Science Educators. Appendix includes interview protocol.

Document

My-Sky-Tonight_Summative_FINAL_12_28_2018.pdf

Team Members

Sasha Palmquist, Evaluator, Institute for Learning Innovation

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: AISL
Award Number: 1217441

Related URLs

My Sky Tonight: Early Childhood Pathways to Astronomy

Tags

Audience: Families | Museum | ISE Professionals | Pre-K Children (0-5)
Discipline: Education and learning science | Space science
Resource Type: Evaluation Reports | Interview Protocol | Research and Evaluation Instruments | Summative
Environment Type: Informal | Formal Connections | Museum and Science Center Programs | Pre-K | Early Childhood Programs | Public Programs