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This website documents a four-year collaboration project funded by the NSF;
the project ran from November 1996 through November 2000.
For information about a current collaborative venture, also funded by the by the NSF,
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Airplay Montshire Museum of Science
Amusement Park Science
Clothing: Science from Head to Toe
Dirt
Fun, 2, 3, 4: All About a Number of Things!
Profiles of the Final TEAMS Exhibitions Evaluation Family Learning in Museums: a TEAMS Workshop |
Evaluation of the TEAMS Exhibits and Collaborative
Executive Summary The TEAMS collaborative is composed of five small to mid-size museums: Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Catawba Science Center in Hickory, North Carolina; Discovery Center in Rockford, Illinois; Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont; and Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York. The project is funded by a National Science Foundation grant and builds on models of previous exhibit collaboratives (Exhibit Research Collaborative, Science Museums Exhibit Collaborative). Directors and staff from these five museums have collaborated to build traveling exhibitions that are small and affordable for their institutions and to develop related educational programming. Moreover, an important aspect of the grant is that the work done in developing the exhibits and programs has resulted in increased institutional capacity, thus enhancing the quality of future exhibits and programs built by each institution. In addition, this collaborative made it a defining feature of their work to learn more about how families interact and learn in museums, and how to better design their exhibits and programs to facilitate high quality family experiences. Inverness Research Associates was contracted by the TEAMS collaborative to provide overall documentation of its effort; to help individual museums as they worked to incorporate formative evaluation into their exhibit development efforts; and to conduct a summative evaluation on the five exhibitions once they were completed. This executive summary presents Inverness Research Associates’ overall assessment of the TEAMS collaborative efforts, based on our three-year study. These findings are detailed more thoroughly in the full report. The collaborative is a good strategy for developing solid exhibitions and programs, and for developing the capacity of small museums.The TEAMS collaborative brought together staff from five small museums who were able to develop higher quality programs and exhibits than they would have on their own. In addition, the overall collaborative’s focus on staff development contributed greatly to developing the capacity at each of the individual museums. Each of the museums is better positioned now to continue to develop high quality exhibits and programs than they were at the beginning of the collaborative.
The collaborative succeeded in building a set of five exhibitions and developing complementary education materials that will travel among the member museums; additionally, the exhibitions will become available to other museums outside the collaborative.At around 1,500 square feet, the five exhibitions are well-suited to small museums. Some of these creative exhibitions explore subjects not ordinarily dealt with in museum exhibitions such as mathematics, dirt, and clothing. These exhibitions and their accompanying education materials will engage visitors at not only the five TEAMS museums, but also visitors at museums throughout the country. These exhibitions fill a crucial need for small, affordable traveling exhibitions.
The collaborative succeeded in helping small museums to hire and train staff.Several of the participating museums hired new exhibit staff during the course of the project. The collaborative helped provide these staff with an invaluable “jump-start” into the museum field, as well as access to colleagues and various other resources. Most staff at the participating museums gained many benefits from the professional development opportunities (workshops, annual museum conferences, and meetings) the collaborative provided. The TEAMS collaborative succeeded in moving small museums to create products at higher, national-level standards.Staff from all of the museums learned a great deal through their individual development efforts, collaborative professional development opportunities, and evaluation work about producing high quality exhibits and programs. At almost all of the museums, staff upgraded their graphics, prototyped exhibits, field-tested activities, and produced professional looking products that will represent their museums well in the national museum market. The exhibitions and programs, while of varying approaches and overall quality, are largely successful.While they are not of uniform quality, the exhibitions and programs are successful. Visitors found the exhibits and related programming activities engaging and inviting, and easy to navigate; they also were able to make conceptual connections with the ideas designers intended to convey. The exhibits and programs, to varying degrees, also engaged visitors with inquiry experiences and helped them see science in everyday things. In addition, for the most part, the exhibits and programs succeeded in providing positive family learning experiences. The collaborative and the continuing presence of Inverness Research Associates in coaching the museums on formative evaluation work combined to keep work on the exhibitions a high priority at most of the museums.Inverness Research Associates worked primarily in a technical assistance capacity at each individual museum, facilitating staff in prototyping and evaluating exhibits. This helped in setting deadlines, critiquing exhibits, and sharing ideas. In many respects, the combination of building exhibits and creating programs for other museums with whom one has been working closely, and the regular presence of an outside evaluator, helped keep the project “public” and a priority at most of the five museums. Overall, while not effortless or without conflict, the strategy of funding a collaborative of small museums is an effective investment.Any collaborative is a complex effort, largely because the success of the effort depends not only on how the museums work with each other, but also on the ways in which the staff of each individual museum work and relate internally. The inevitable institutional turbulence that arose during the course of the project was not devastating, in part, because the larger collaborative helped carry the project. Thus, the strategy of funding a collaborative of small museums is an effective investment of National Science Foundation funds, enabling a high level of participation and product development that individual museums might not have been able to sustain on their own. The lessons staff from these five museums have learned over the course of the project should serve the group well.
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