Summary of Student and Teacher
Post-Show Surveys
Grossology and You
September, 2014

Submitted by:

Amy A. Germuth, Ph.D.

EvalWorks, LLC

150 Solterra Way

Durham, NC 27705

Findings from STEPP Pre-Post Surveys – Summer 20141 | Page

Executive Summary

In 2012, the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center was awarded a SEPA (Science Education Partnership Act) grant from the National Institutes for Health ealth for the project "Addressing the Science of Really Gross Things: Engaging Young Learners in Biomedical Science Through a Fulldome Show and Supporting Curricula." The primary objective of this project was to improve students' understanding of their bodies and their health through the development of a fulldome planetarium show, based on the popular children's book Grossology and You, and that focused on the inner workings of the digestive, respiratory and immune systems and was meant for students in grades 3-8.

The final rough-cut version of Grossology and You was shown on July 29, 30 and 31 to multiple local school groups who had been asked to view the show and complete post-show surveys. Groups that attended shows included 7th graders from Rogers-Herr Middle School (Durham Public Schools - Durham, NC) and campers from the Morehead Planetarium Summer Camp.A total of 233 students and 15 teachers completed surveys after they viewed it. Findings from these surveys are as follows:

  • Two-thirds of student respondents agreed a lot or completely agreed that they had fun watching Grossology and You and that this show made learning about science fun. Half agreed a lot or completely agreed that they would like to watch more shows like Grossology and You and that viewing it made them want to learn more about science related to their body. Differences in ratings by gender were very small or non-existent.
  • Just slightly over half (56%) of 7th graders, the largest audience group, believed the show was meant for their age group, with 8% believing it was meant for older students and over a third (36%) believing it was meant for younger students. When findings were disaggregated by gender, an equal percent of females and males(36%) rated it as more appropriate for younger students, but more males rating it as appropriate for their age group (60% versus 52%) while more females rated it as more appropriate for older students (12% versus 4%).
  • Teachers' perceptions of how their students' viewed the show were more positive than students' reactions.All teachers agreed a lot or completely agreed that their students enjoyed watching the show and that the show made learning about science fun for students, and all but one teacher agreed a lot or completely agreed that the show helped their students understand that science is all around them. There was slightly less agreement to the statement "This show made my students want to learn more about science related to their body.".
  • When asked what was most interesting to them, students noted the digestive and immune systems much more frequently than the respiratory system. Responses regarding the least interesting aspects of the show were mostly about the digestive system (n=22) and the respiratory system (n=19). Only four comments related to the immune system. When asked what they had learned, slightly more comments were about aspects of the respiratory and immune systems than the digestive system. While these findings are somewhat contradictory (the digestive system was most often noted as the most interesting aspect and least interesting aspect of the show), it appears as if the immune system was viewed fairly consistently as interesting and the respiratory system as fairly uninteresting, although students learned a lot about it from the show.
  • When asked what they had learned from watching Grossology and You, the majority of comments (51 each) related to information about the immune and respiratory systems, 44 comments were about the digestive system, and 28 comments were more generic and about the body. Only ten comments indicated that students had not learned anything new.
  • When presented with four options for what they will do since they saw this show, half of the students (47%) indicated that they will tell people about the show, 16% will look things up about the human body, 9% will look up things presented in the show, and 28% won't do any of these things. When responses were disaggregated by sex, more females planned to tell people about the show (53% of females versus 41% of males) whereas almost twice as many males indicated that they won't do any of these things (36% of males versus 19% of females).

Based on these findings, and given where the show is in the development process, recommendations include the following:

  1. Remove the PSAs and/or reduce the number of fun facts included in the show in order to increase pacing.
  2. Add more factual and detailedinformation about the respiratory system to try to make this segment more interesting and longer.
  3. Add more detailed information and actual pictures of the various systems and processes, where possible.
  4. Market the show to a slightly younger age group (3rd - 6th graders) and assess how they respond to the show.

Introduction

In 2012, the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center was awarded a SEPA (Science Education Partnership Act) grant from the National Institutes for Health ealth for the project "Addressing the Science of Really Gross Things: Engaging Young Learners in Biomedical Science Through a Fulldome Show and Supporting Curricula." The primary objective of this project was to improve students' understanding of their bodies and their health through the development of a fulldome planetarium show based on the popular children's book Grossology and You. Along with the planetarium show, Morehead planned to develop complementary curriculum materials for classroom use. Both were to focus on the inner workings of the digestive, respiratory and immune systems and be designed for use by students in grades 3-8.

The series of Grossology® books, written by educator Sylvia Branzei-Velasquez and illustrated by artist Jack Keely, take a lighthearted approach to the serious science of the human body. Using this series as the basis for the show, the Project Investigators, Dr. Denise Young, Director of Education and Planning at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, and Dr. Richard Superfine, Taylor-Williams Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,worked with expert researchers and advisors in science and education and the design team to produce the show and associated curricular materials.

Currently,Grossology and You is in the final stages of production with almost 90% of the animation, music, and voicing completed. The final version is scheduledfor release in November 2014 with related curriculum materials to be made available by early 2015. Given that this show was in the final stages of production, the Project Investigators, design team, and other stakeholders involved in its development were interested in how the primary target audience (3rd - 8th graders) perceived the show. To assess this, multiple groups of students were invited to view the show and then respond to a short survey to gather their feedback about it.

Methodology

To better understand what upper elementary and lower middle school-aged children (the target audience) thought about this show, the evaluator developed a survey for them to respond to after watching the show.Similarly, a survey was developed for their teachers to complete after they viewed the show. Both surveys were designed to gather the perspectives of the various viewers about what they liked or found most interesting about the show, what they learned from viewing the show, and their interest in viewing more shows similar to Grossology and You.The Project Investigators, design team, and other stakeholders worked collaboratively with the evaluator to identify the most pertinent questions for inclusion in the surveys.

Based on responses from the first set of student viewers, the student survey was slightly modified so that subsequent students were asked to provide their reasoning for their level of agreement to five key questions:

  1. I had fun watching Grossology.
  2. I would like to watch more shows like Grossology.
  3. This show made learning about science fun.
  4. This show made me want to learn more about science related to my body.
  5. Learning about science is important.

To make room for these questions and to not overburden respondents, other questions were removed from the student survey.A copy of both versions of the student survey and the teacher survey are included in the Appendices.

Findings

Respondents

The final rough-cut version of Grossology and You was shown on July 29, 30 and 31 to multiple local school groups who had been asked to view the show and complete post-show surveys. Groups that attended shows included 7th graders from Rogers-Herr Middle School (Durham Public Schools - Durham, NC) and campers from the Morehead Planetarium Summer Camp.

A total of 233 students completed surveys about Grossology and You (115 completed the initial version of the survey and 118 completed the revised version); 15 teachers also completed surveys.Table 1 provides a breakdown of student respondents by age, grade, sex, and race/ethnicity. Table 2includes demographic data on the 15 teachers who completed surveys.

As is shown below, the majority of student respondent were 12 years old and in 7th grade.Respondents were almost equally divided by sex but were very heterogeneous in terms of race/ethnicity with 39% identifying as Black / African-American, 22% as White, 15% as Mexican-American/ Hispanic/ Chicano/ Latino, and 14% as having a mixed heritage. All teacher respondents worked at Rogers-Herr Middle school; 40% (n=9) have experience teaching science.

Table 1

Demographic Data: Student Respondents

n / %
Age
6 / 2 / 0.9%
7 / 2 / 0.9%
8 / 1 / 0.4%
9 / 12 / 5.2%
10 / 8 / 3.5%
11 / 33 / 14.3%
12 / 157 / 68.0%
13 / 15 / 6.5%
14 / 1 / 0.4%
Grade
1 / 2 / 0.9%
2 / 1 / 0.4%
3 / 1 / 0.4%
4 / 12 / 5.2%
5 / 8 / 3.5%
6 / 2 / 0.9%
7 / 204 / 88.3%
8 / 1 / 0.4%
Sex
Male / 112 / 48.5%
Female / 113 / 48.9%
Race/Ethnicity
Asian-American / 12 / 5.2%
Black/African American / 89 / 38.7%
Mexican American/Hispanic/ Chicano/Latino / 34 / 14.8%
Native American or American Indian / 4 / 1.7%
White / 50 / 21.7%
Mixed Heritage / 33 / 14.3%
Another race / 8 / 3.5%

Table 2

Demographic Data: Teacher/Adult Respondents

n / %
School/Organization
Rogers-Herr Middle School / 15 / 100%
Have Taught Science
No / 9 / 60%
Yes / 6 / 40%
Grade levels: Elem (1), Middle (4), High (1)

Student Ratings and Explanations

All student surveys included a question that asked students to indicate their level of agreement to five statements. Agreement choices included "Don't agree", "Agree a little", "Agree a lot", and "Completely agree". The five statements were: (1) I had fun watching Grossology; (2) I would like to watch more shows like Grossology; (3) This show made learning about science fun; (4) This show made me want to learn more about science related to my body; and (5) Learning about science is important.

Figure 1 presents the percent of respondents who agreed a lot or completely agreed to the statements. As is shown, two-thirds of student respondents agreed a lot or completely agreed that they had fun watching Grossology and You and that this show made learning about science fun. Half agreed a lot or completely agreed that they would like to watch more shows like Grossology and You and that viewing it made them want to learn more about science related to their body.

Close to 90% of respondents indicated that learning about science is important.

Figure 1.

Percent of All Students Agreeing A Lot or Completely Agreeing

In addition, students were asked to indicate whether they believed this show was meant for kids their age, older than them, or younger than them. When looking at 7th graders only, just slightly over half (56%) believed it was meant for their age group, with 8% believing it was meant for older students and over a third (36%) believing it was meant for younger students.

Figure 2.

7th Graders' Indications of Age Appropriateness of Show

As noted previously, in order to gather more information about what prompted students' to select the ratings they chose the student survey was adapted between the first and second showings. In the second version of the survey, students were asked to indicate why they agreed or disagreed with the five positively-worded statements after providing their rating. Typical responses are presented below, by statement, to better understand overall responses.

I had fun watching Grossology.
It was gross.Fart guy - didn't like him.
I had fun watching it because of the info and the roller coasters.
It was funny, informative, and entertaining.
It was interesting but a little gross.
I agreed because it taught me about things that happen inside my body.
Because it was a witty kind of funny.
Sometimes pictures weren't shown.
It was good but also corny and dull at times.
I think that it's for kids younger and kinda gross and fun.
I disagree because the movie wasn't all that exciting.Also I was told that it was funny when it wasn't.
It wasn't as funny but visually awesome.
I think it needed to be more mature.
It was kind of nasty and weird.
I agree a little because overall it was okay but most of it was stuff I already knew but still was interesting.
I agreed because it was really interesting to watch and I had fun.
Watching Grossology was really cool but at some parts it got boring.
Because they explained everything clearly.
I would like to watch more shows like Grossology.
It is interesting to watch, but I feel like the level of the content is too low.
Because it was a bit over exaggerating with some of the stuff.
I agree because we can learn a lot about ourselves and understand what's happening in our body.
I don't love body science, but Grossology was pretty good.
Because it was gross and I wanted to throw up.But it was good cause I learned things about my body.
It was pretty childish, and I've been learning the same things since fifth grade.
It was good.Maybe make it a bit more funny when you're exploring the gross stuff.
Well, it wasn't a show I would see for the jokes, more because it's 3D like.
Needs to be more mature.
This show made learning about science fun.
They showed us how bodies work.
It was funny and I still learned something.
Because they made things educated and funny.
It wasn't boring like regular classes.
Kind of, but it still felt like class.
Not really for me.
Because it was a little young but informative.
It showed me things I never knew and I wish every day was like that.
It's awesome to learn new stuff.
It was educational but still had music and jokes.
Yes, because the concept is very different and fun.
I knew everything, so I didn't learn.
Wasn't the best science movie/show.
I thought it was funny because the characters were cool.
Only because it was a little too cartoonish for me.
This show made me want to learn more about science related to my body.
I want to learn more about the brain, etc.
Because the way they said things made it interesting and funny.
I agree because when I start seeing changes in my body I would like to know why.
The show had a good sense to it and I would like to learn more.
It wasn't exciting.
I want to know more about scabs.
I want to see what other things my body can do.
I agree because it was exciting and fun.
I'm really interested in that kind of stuff.
It was definitely interesting.
The show/movie was kinda funny and made me want to research more about science.
I agreed because it's better to learn about your body or see what's going on inside your body.
It was nasty!
It was more little kids (7-9).
If this made me a little sick, I don't want to know more.
Because now I know all these cool things I want to know more.
It was super entertaining.
It didn't make the human body seem cool.It made it seem like you don't want to have one.
It gave good details.
Learning about science is important.
That is where good careers are.
It's important cause you need to know how your body forms and does things.
Science is everywhere.
Because you need to know what happens in the world.
Science is very important to society, especially growing minds.
Science helps us solve important problems.
You need to learn how things/objects work.
You need science for some jobs.
Many jobs involve science, so it's important to learn about different topics.
Science affects everything.
Learning about science can help you later in life.
Because mainly everything is science in this world.
Without science you wouldn't know about bacteria and things like that.
I don't like science.
Many jobs require you to know a lot about different types of science.
You might need to use science for your career.
We need science to know more.
Science will make us smarter.
Most jobs require scientific thinking - that's why I agreed.

Student Ratings by Gender