Evaluating Mixed-Age Programs
A woman and two young girls playing at an aquarium touch tank
In many informal STEM education programs, you may find yourself working with a wide range of ages. Museum public programs, for instance, may involve drop-in programs, live facilitation on grounds, and single-day events that draw a broad audience.
A question that we address often as evaluators is, “How can you effectively evaluate these programs, with such a broad audience?” There are a few strategies that we employ when working with programs of these types.
The first strategy is to create multiple assessment methods that are appropriate for different audiences. Older youth and adults can easily complete written evaluation tools, like surveys and questionnaires, but what about younger audiences? Younger ages generally have not yet developed the critical thinking and language skills needed for more complex assessments. Instead, a short guided interview, drawing assessment, or observations may be more effective methods for gathering information from this age group.
The second strategy is to create multiple versions of the same methods tailored to different ages. You might have an adult survey, an older youth survey, and a younger youth survey, all of which touch on the same basic ideas, but with language and structure that are developmentally appropriate. Younger youth, for instance, may not be able to accurately rate their level of agreement with scales or complete a retrospective pre/post model. Adults may be able to offer more in open-ended questions, and youth may need shorter surveys overall.
The third strategy is to create different evaluation strategies for different audiences. Rather than seeking answers to the same set of questions from all ages, as in the previous examples, this might involve targeting certain questions to certain audiences. For instance, you may have questions about how youth are engaging with a nature play space. This could be answered through observations of youth using the space. But you might also be interested in how likely adults are to take their kids to the nature play space. Surveys and interviews with adults could be a strategy to answer that question.
While working with different ages can add complexity to an evaluation, it also adds value and greater understanding. Employing one or a few of these strategies can help you answer important questions about your programs.
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