“Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a National Science Foundation funded project which developed a national traveling exhibition on science and technology themes depicted in the Star Wars movies. The Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) developed the exhibition in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. and Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (SMEC). The exhibition will travel to members of the SMEC in Los Angeles, Portland, Fort Worth, St. Paul, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Boston. Other venues will display the exhibition after the Collaborative tour. Tisdal Consulting was contracted to conduct remedial and summative evaluation studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibition at its first two venues: the Museum of Science (MOS), Boston, and the Columbus Ohio Science Center (COSI). The exhibition opened at MOS on October 27, 2005. A remedial evaluation report was submitted on February 1, 2006 based on data collected between November 4 and 20, 2005. The purpose of this summative study is to provide information to allow the exhibition team, SMEC, and funders to decide if the exhibition accomplished its intended outcomes. Findings will also be useful to other institutions hosting the traveling exhibition. We used a naturalistic methodology to conduct the study using both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data at MOS between April 1 and April 13, 2006 and at COSI between July 8 and July 22, 2006.” (Tisdal)
