Evaluation and Learning Research
Kirsten Ellenbogen - Director of Evaluation and Research in Learning
Kirsten focuses her research designing exhibits to encourage science talk, adapting scientific visualization technology to engage the public in explorations of scientific data, and understanding the role of museums in family life. She began her work in museums as a demonstrator at the Detroit Science Center in 1987. Her award-winning exhibition development work has focused on inquiry experiences, multimedia interactives, and dual-purpose spaces appropriate for both school and family groups. She was the King's College London Center for Informal Learning & Schools project director at its inception. She was also an affiliated researcher of the Museum Learning Collaborative. Most recently, she was a Senior Associate at the Institute for Learning Innovation where she was the PI of an NSF-funded initiative designed to coalesce the last decade of research on learning in museums into frameworks for practitioners. She received her Ph.D. in Science Education from Vanderbilt University and her B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Amy Grack Nelson - Evaluation and Research Associate
Amy began her career at the Science Museum of Minnesota in 2006. She has been involved in evaluating a variety of exhibits and programs at the Science Museum including the Big Back Yard, Science on a Sphere, and MathPacks. Amy previously worked in informal education as an interpretive naturalist for North Dakota State Parks and at Dakota Science Center developing content for an online natural science learning environment called Ranger Rosie. Amy's graduate work focused on evaluating environmental education materials and programs for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' MinnAqua program. As a graduate student she also carried out summative evaluations of two exhibitions at Bell Museum of Natural History. Amy received her M.S. in Environmental Education, M.A. in Evaluation Studies, and B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota.