New England Aquarium

The New England Aquarium will launch a multi-tiered professional development program for staff to learn new evaluation methods to enhance visitor experience. The project will establish a sustainable evaluation infrastructure, strengthen social science research and evaluation in informal learning, and expand professional development opportunities within and beyond the organization. Up to fifty staff, volunteers, and interns will participate in evaluation professional development activities through a series of cohort-based evaluation training and hands-on experiences, biannual professional development workshops, and a dozen applied evaluation projects. The project will result in a sustainable institutional evaluation framework and annual evaluation planning process that will improve the design of educational and community engagement programs at the aquarium as well as ensure visitor experiences are informed by audience feedback.