| Roundtable: Into the Wild: A Collaborative Evaluation of a Zoo's Home School Program |
| Roundtable Presentation 260 to be held in Conference Room 1 on Thursday, Nov 3, 10:45 AM to 11:30 AM |
| Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Paromita De, University of South Florida, pde2@mail.usf.edu |
| Chunhua Cao, University of South Florida, chunhuacao@mail.usf.edu |
| Walter J Rosales-Mejía, University of South Florida, wrosales@mail.usf.edu |
| Vanessa Vernaza-Hernandez, University of South Florida, vanessav@mail.usf.edu |
| Abstract: Environmental education has gained growing interest, and as a result the number and variety of stakeholders are increasing. One group of stakeholders, Home School families, are often faced with the challenge of providing their students with access to knowledge beyond the family's teaching capabilities. For this reason, entities like zoos and museums have created programs for Home School students to learn about special topics. At the Lowry Park Zoo's Home School program in Tampa, Florida, students and families met monthly to discuss different animal topics. This collaborative evaluation looked at program benefits for students and parents. The involvement of teacher and parent stakeholders in addition to external evaluators provided unique perceptions in assessing program impact. Empowering the stakeholders by involving them in the evaluation's implementation allowed our client to be more receptive to stakeholders' needs and suggestions for future improvements. |