Native Plant Lab: an Exploration Station
As a part of the Delta Program course on Informal Science Education, I worked with two other graduate students (Andrew Winters and Jake Walsh) to design, present, and assess a tabletop "Exploration Station" at Science Expeditions, a large university outreach event. A brief summary is provided on this page, but look here for more detailed information about Front End Evaluation and Formative Assessment. You can also download our full report with associated documents here.
We began out Exploration Station planning by conducting some Front End Evaluation. We talked to an outreach specialist at the UW-Madison Arboretum and surveyed 32 school children about their interest in invasive plant species. Based on our results, we decided to focus our Exploration Station on native plant seeds and making "Seed Bombs".
Our Exploration Station had two components: making the seed bombs themselves and investigating some of the seeds under a microscope. The image to the left shows our Exploration Station poster.
Seed bombs are little balls of clay and compost that contain seeds. If the seed bomb is planted, the seeds will grow. In our activity, each participant got a glob of clay/compost mixture from a facilitator and flattened it out. Then the facilitator added a spoonful of native seed mix and the participant formed a ball or other shape. Participants took the seed bombs home in plastic bags along with a handout of instructions.
In the microscope portion of the station, participants could examine 4 seed varieties under a dissection microscope. and read about each one. A facilitator constantly monitored the microscopes to help with focusing and to answer any questions about the seeds. Facilitators encouraged participants to participate in both activities.
We conducted formative assessment while the Exploration Station was running. We estimate that 440 participants (mostly families) spent an average of 6.7 minutes at the station, with additional participants stopping by briefly. Results from a sticker-based survey indicate that 80% of participants enjoyed their time at the station and 95% learned at least a little bit about native plant species.
Reflection
Working on this project was my first exposure to conducting front end evaluation and formative assessment. Previously when I had been involved in science outreach, I focused mainly on activities that I thought were fun and interesting without asking what my audience thought. Without conducting the assessment, I would have planned the activity very differently. Now, when planning activities for outreach, teaching, or research mentoring, I make sure that I either ask the students I will be working with about potential topics or speak with an expert on my subject matter and audience. I also understand the importance of assessing the success of an outreach activity. In addition to evidence being increasingly required by funding agencies, knowing the good and bad points of an activity is helpful for improving it in future renditions. I was able to use the assessment skills I learned in my Teaching-as-Research project and in the planned evaluation for Students Reading Real Science.