Measuring interest in science and nature is one way to gauge participant engagement. Developing a high interest in science and nature is key to developing youth’s identity as a science learner, sustaining engagement in the subject, and gaining their interest in science careers. This tool measures interest, which is defined by how much someone assigns personal relevance to a subject.
This tool, the Draw-an-Ecosystem task, takes a qualitative approach to evaluation. Participants draw and label an ecosystem before and after a program to measure their change in environmental knowledge.
This tool has been used to measure youth’s attitudes toward animals during long-term programs at a zoo. It focuses on empathy by exploring perspective-taking, respect, and concern for animals. Empathy is an environmental attitude (outcome); developing empathy for animals can lead someone to take action on behalf of wildlife.
This set of qualitative tools intend to help programs/organizations understand how participants experience their program(s). Because of the qualitative nature of the tools, this approach lifts up participants’ voice in their own words, as opposed to a closed-ended survey tool. These tools help capture the nuance and story of participant experience and can be useful for both internal understanding and external reports to funders, boards, community members, and other key partners.
This scale is a very brief measure of positive youth development (PYD) as conceptualized by the Lerner and Lerner Five Cs model of PYD (Lerner et al., 2015). The Five Cs model emphasizes that thriving youth are characterized by five Cs (competence, confidence, connection, character and caring). Youth who exhibit the five Cs are more likely to contribute to their families, schools, and communities, thus developing the “sixth C”, which is contribution.
This tool is a reflection question that can help participants consider what they felt during a program. It can be formatted as a journal prompt or exit slip. Have participants say or write down their responses to the following question to assess attachment to place:
When I spend time in waterways and trails near my home, I feel…