Evaluation
We conduct evaluation to explore the outcomes, benefits, and impacts of the North Bay Science Discovery Day for attendees, exhibitors, and our North Bay communities. Please contact Steven Worker, PhD, smworker@ucanr.edu.
Attendee, Volunteer, Exhibitor Evaluation
We collected 403 attendee exit surveys, 64 volunteer post-event surveys, and 51 exhibitor post-event surveys.
Key Takeaways
The evaluation results show that North Bay Science Discovery Day:
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Sparked strong public interest in STEM. Attendees reported high levels of wonder and curiosity, increased STEM interest, stronger confidence in understanding science, and strong intent to seek out future STEM activities.
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Created a positive experience for attendees, volunteers, and exhibitors. Attendees and exhibitors rated the event especially highly, while volunteers also reported positive experiences and high return intent.
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Strengthened the regional STEM learning ecosystem. Exhibitors used the event to connect with families, increase awareness of their organizations, and build or strengthen relationships with other community partners.
Exhibitor Evaluation "Mystery Shopper" Pilot
The mystery shopper evaluation was designed as a formative quality-improvement tool, piloted at the 2026 NBSDD. Evaluators visited exhibits as regular attendees, participated briefly, then scored each activity using an 8-item rubric.
Key Takeaways
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The mystery shopper process was a useful pilot. The pilot generated 88 usable evaluations across 61 of 106 exhibitors (58%), providing a strong first look at exhibit quality while also showing how to refine the evaluation process.
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Rated exhibits were generally strong. The mean total score was 13.0 on a 16-point scale, with a median of 14.0, suggesting most evaluated exhibits met many of the rubric criteria.
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Exhibitor strengths were clear. Evaluators rated exhibits highest on accessibility and inclusion, friendly staff, and sparking wonder and curiosity.
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The main improvement area was inquiry facilitation. Lower scores appeared for asking youth to think, giving visitors agency, and making the inquiry question clear.
What are the event's larger impacts in the community?
We wanted to dig deeper into the powerful ‘ripples’ NBSDD creates in the San Francisco North Bay STEM Learning Ecosystem.
Method: Ripple effect mapping; a participatory evaluation method that uses group interviewing, mind mapping, and qualitative data analysis, to collect stories that ripple out from a specific program. We brought a group of 8 people together around the question: What have you seen or heard about NBSDD’s larger impact in the North Bay?
What youth say about their experience
How does an experience like the Discovery Day influence children?
What are thoughts about future choices and occupations?
Here are comments from youth who attended a Discovery Day.
My geophysics major in college was inspired by my third grade teacher
I enjoyed teaching the little kids about science
I enjoyed teaching the little kids about science
A 6th grade experience got my into science
I was more competitive with Odyssey of the Mind!
It improved my public speaking skills
"I just thought you might like to hear how helpful everything on your North Bay Science Discovery Day page has been for one of the kids I work with! I'm a tutor and librarian and have been working with a young girl named Alyssa for a few days on a lot of different science subjects. Not that she needs tutoring or anything, she went to a STEM camp over summer and is obsessed with doing something science related as a career. I've been showing her just how many different options are out there and everything you put up on your STEM Links page really helped drive that point home for her! Figured I'd let you know how much she and I appreciate it all. I'll definitely be passing along your page to some of the other students! About the same time we stumbled across your page, Alyssa also found this breakdown of the different types of engineering fields that are out there. She was thinking of pursuing a career in engineering when she grew up so this was incredibly beneficial for her. After all the help she got from you she thought we should pass it along as our way of saying thanks! She figured there's probably some other kids out there who would get some use out of it, too, in case you wanted to add it to your page! If you do, would you mind emailing me back so I can let her know you liked her suggestion?
Thomas