A Method to Increase and Document the Impact of Astrobiology Education and Public Outreach.

Astrobiology education and public outreach (E/PO) efforts vary widely in terms of audience, content focus, duration, intensity, and numerous other characteristics. To identify best practices and gauge impact, an evaluation model is needed that functions across a variety of activities. In 2013, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) convened 19 astrobiology E/PO specialists for 2 days in Phoenix, AZ, with a professional evaluator to develop an evaluation model. The resulting model, termed the impact analysis method (IAM), is a series of evaluation-based practices that are tied to each phase in the "life cycle" of an E/PO project: beginning with needs assessment, which leads to the articulation of clear measurable objectives, from which design criteria for the project are developed, followed by examining the fidelity of the implementation and measuring the impacts. Data from those measurements were then used by astrobiology E/PO specialists to refine future implementation, collect evidence of impact, and support subsequent program decisions. A rubric was developed to show increasing levels of rigor of the evaluation practices in each phase of the project. Eleven astrobiology E/PO specialists who used the IAM reported increases in their understanding of evaluation and improvements in their programs.

Effects of Astrobiology Lectures on Knowledge and Attitudes about Science in Incarcerated Populations.

The incarcerated population has little or no access to science education programs, STEM resources, or scientists. We explored the effects of a low-cost, potentially high-impact informal science education program that enabled NASA scientists to provide astrobiology lectures to adults inside 16 correctional institutions in three states. Post- versus pre-lecture surveys suggest that presentations significantly increased science content knowledge, positively shifted attitudes about science and scientists, increased a sense of science self-identity, and enhanced behavioral intentions about communicating science. These were significant across ethnicity, gender, education level, and institution type, size, location, and state. Men scored higher than women on pre-lecture survey questions. Among men, participants with greater levels of education and White non-Hispanics scored higher than those with less educational attainment and African American and other minority participants. Increases in science content knowledge were greater for women than men and, among men, for those with lower levels of education and African American participants. Women increased more in science identity than did men. Thus, even limited exposure to voluntary, non-credit science lectures delivered by scientists can be an effective way to broker a relationship to science for this underserved public group and can potentially serve as a step to broaden participation in science.