The Science Festival Alliance: Creating a Sustainable National Network of Science Festivals Summative Evaluation

Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) served as the external evaluator of the three-year NSF-funded Science Festival Alliance (SFA), a collaborative started by the University of California San Diego, the MIT Museum (Cambridge, MA), the University of California San Francisco, and The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, PA). The focus of the SFA over its first three years was helping establish and sustain science festivals in each of these four cities. The Alliance’s long-term goal is to facilitate the creation of a growing network of festivals and a community of science festival practitioners. To this end, the SFA began work in December 2012 on a new three-year “broad implementation” grant from NSF. This report focuses on the knowledge gained about who participated in science festivals, the benefits of science festivals (for attendees as well as participating STEM practitioners), the most important characteristics of science festivals (that were related to increased benefits for attendees), and the support that is needed to initiate and sustain science festivals. The SFA supports 31 science festival initiatives across the country, and SFA evaluation findings have significant implications for these many initiatives.