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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: March 26, 2016
Summary Sentence:
Georgia Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing’s Evaluation Team lead the evaluation of the 2016 Atlanta Science Festival
Full Summary:
Through an effort led by Dr. Meltem Alemdar and Olivia Shellman, Georgia Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing’s Evaluation Team lead the evaluation of the Atlanta Science Festival, culminating with the Science Festival Expo in Centennial Olympic park on Saturday, March 26, 2016.
Georgia Tech's CEISMC - Dr. Sunni Newton Atlanta Science Festival Expo
Georgia Tech's CEISMC - Evaluator, Shaheen Rana at the 2016 Atlanta Science Festival
Georgia Tech's CEISMC - Evaluators at Atlanta Science Festival Expo, Christopher Cappelli and Bill KayThrough an effort led by Dr. Meltem Alemdar and Olivia Shellman, Georgia Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing’s Evaluation Team lead the evaluation of the Atlanta Science Festival, culminating with the Science Festival Expo in Centennial Olympic park on Saturday, March 26, 2016. The Expo attracted thousands of Georgians and hosted hundreds of local universities, businesses, and science organizations, bringing them all together for the Atlanta’s largest science celebration. This was CEISMC Education Outreach Coordinator Olivia Shellman’s second year coordinating the evaluation of the Festival, and the Evaluation Team’s third year as sole evaluators. Hundreds of surveys and on-site interviews were collected from Festival attendees, including amazing interviews from science enthused families at the Expo for the first time this year! Through collaboration with an NSF-funded national coalition of Science Festival evaluators, EvalFest, the CEISMC Evaluation Team developed and administered both Spanish and English surveys on iPads for Expo attendees.
The attendee iPad surveys, developed in collaboration with EvalFest, primarily collected data on demographics, to assess a main Festival goal of reaching people all across Georgia. Additionally, the survey inquired about satisfaction, if attendees were having fun, and if they recognized their opportunity to engage with scientists at the Festival.
The interview questions, developed by the CEISMC Evaluation Team, targeted to document the experience of both children and adults at the festival. Children who were interviewed were asked what some of the coolest things they did at the Festival were, and if they helped a scientist do hands-on experiments. Adults, on the other hand, were asked how they thought the Festival contributed to the Atlanta community, and what the most valuable and memorable experiences they shared with their families at the Expo were. Attendees seemed very excited to give feedback to the Evaluation Team via interviews.
Finally, thanks to a stroke of creative genius by 2014 Atlanta Science Festival Coordinator, Hayley McLeod, the Evaluation Team handed out stickers that read, “I’m a data point!” to every attendee who provided feedback. This sticker method, and the “I’m a data point!” language was a hit with the Evalfest team, and now stickers just like it are used across the nation at other science festivals!
The Evaluation Team is proud and excited to continue to foster its relationship with the Atlanta Science Festival, and represent Georgia Tech in the broader Atlanta and national science communities.
The Evaluation Team consists of: Dr. Meltem Alemdar, Olivia Shellman, Shaheen Rana, Dr. Jeremy Lingle, Christopher Cappelli, Dr. Jessica Gale, Dr. Sunni Newton, and Anna Newsome. Revenna Brown, Tammy Ku, and Luis Cortes, mentors from CEISMC’s GoSTEM program, and former Atlanta Science Festival Coordinator Hayley McLeod assisted the Team at the Expo as well.
