Salmon Camp Research Team 2005 Annual Evaluation Report

Overarching evaluation questions focus on continuous improvement, the degree to which the Salmon Camp project achieves its objectives with regards to students' skills and attitudes, as well as implementation and outcome questions. Evaluation activities are designed to probe five major areas: 1. Student Knowledge and Skills. To what extent do students gain experience with digital tools, field research, and workplace skills? 2. Student Attitudes. How are students' attitudes and self-efficacy as science students changing with involvement in Salmon Camp? How are career interests changing or deepening? Are there differences in these dispositions based on level of participation in activities? 3. Implementation. What is the fidelity of project implementation? Is the project being implemented as envisioned? What factors influence implementation? What is the level of participation? Are cultural as well as technical aspects of the project being addressed? 4. Outcomes. What impact is the project having? Are there unanticipated or ancillary impacts to the community of learners involved in Salmon Camp? How are former Salmon Campers, counselors, mentors, researchers, parents, and family members influenced by the project? 5. Continuous Improvement. How can the project improve? What is working? How can evaluation findings be most useful to the project as it unfolds? Student feedback from the summer camps was very positive. Two and a half weeks is a long period of time for high school students to be involved in a project of this nature. The retention of nearly all students through the duration of the camp is an accomplishment in itself and speaks to the success of the project. The high school students in the summer sessions rated their experiences somewhat more positively than the middle school students who participated in a one-week session. Evaluation findings indicate that across sessions, Salmon Camp successfully: · Provided culturally relevant experiences to Native American students in the high school sessions, less so for middle school students · Exposed students to some technology use in the field, particularly Global Positioning Systems· Improved understanding of science content and resource management ideas· Heightened interest and curiosity in science. The appendix of this report includes interview protocols and surveys.