Konza Environmental Education Program Schoolyard Long-term Ecological Research Workshop Evaluation Summary 2005

1. Did you receive enough information to fully understand the projects and what your students would be involved in?  What other information might you need?

·             Yes, from resources on the KEEP website.

·             Yes, a list of books referenced would be great.

·             I feel ready to participate in KEEP research.

·             I don’t fully understand all of the projects, but it is important to get a good feel for all of the choices so that we can make a wise choice for our class.

·             Yes, I would have liked to discuss the activity and analyze the data immediately after the activity.

·             I think so, having copies of the activities helps a lot! 

·             Yes, I really should have visited my site so I knew which activity would be the most appropriate.

2. Did the activities help you to understand the project and what would be asked of your students?

·             Modeling is very important to the way I learn.  It really helped me to have the written lessons as well as participating in the lesson.

·             Some, I would prefer to have fewer guest speakers and more computer data analysis experience.

·             Yes, it is always best to go through it first and then know possible problems and pitfalls.  I think a little more conclusion or debriefing on each activity would help me to know what results we collected that day in the activity.

·             Yes, very appropriate for students.

3. Was it important to have the researchers give informal lectures?  Why or why not?

·             Yes, because the open communication and work in the field were very useful.

·             Yes, I really learned some super information from them.  I felt like I got more out of the activities.

·             Yes, I learned a lot of background information and experienced their enthusiasm for their work.

·             Yes, even though we are focusing on one activity, theoretically, it is important to have background information.  It was important to me to discuss what a prairie is, the influence on the prairie, etc.

·             They were interesting but the importance is not high in my opinion.  I would have preferred to have done the complete activities.

·             Yes, it helped in an overall understanding and for some I am sure just the basic content may have been needed.

·             Yes, they provide important information that helps you understand the research and studies.

4. Did the workshop allow adequate time to prepare you for addition of these programs into your curriculum?  If not, what would be an adequate time period or better method?

·             Yes, I wish I had brought more materials with me to aid in planning my specific curriculum.

·             I did get a start but will need to use more time at home with my resources to completely get it ready.

·             Yes, it helped motivate and educate me.  I need to educate students in our area.

5. What are some suggestions to improve the workshop or Schoolyard LTER program?

·             Site visits if possible to help guide us.  I know that this will come later.

·             Sometimes instructions for activities were a little unclear.  It was very helpful to have all three trained people to ask questions.

·             It seemed like the pace was a little slow the first couple days.  I think we should have spent class time on doing the spreadsheet that we did on Tuesday before Darren came.  However, I do think it’s good to let us play with the program and struggle a bit before he instructs us.

·             Being real consistent in the order things are done.  Giving the directions to us as you would to the students.  The actual data collecting needs to be done but can be shortened.  Going through the entire debriefing procedure.  I need to hear the questions you think are important to ask.

·             Have evaluations right after activity.  More guidelines for presentation.

6. How would you rate the workshop overall?

·             Excellent – 6 of 7

·             Good - 1 of 7

·             OK - 0          

·             Poor - 0

7. Other comments and suggestions:

·             Maybe it would be more meaningful to start first thing with a nature hike or the tour in the van to familiarize us with the prairie.

·             Your assistants were wonderful! As were you!

·             Thanks for the information and encouragement.

·             Thanks for everything.  I am excited about this and may just have to rethink my whole Principles of Science curriculum so that I can incorporate more.  

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