STEM outreach programs often struggle to demonstrate meaningful impact beyond basic attendance numbers. In collaboration with our partners at the American Chemical Society and the Center for Molecularly Optimized Networks, we sought to provide an evaluation of how a hands-on activity could impact participant understanding.

Through implementing a structured evaluation framework, we documented a 50.9% increase in conceptual depth, evolving from sensory observations to chemical mechanism understanding.

An image of a student evaluation form for a slime activity with four sections. At the top, there's an age group selection (0-2, 3-7, 8-12, 13+) with 13+ circled. Below that, a question asks "IS SLIME A..." with options for SOLID, LIQUID, or BOTH, where SOLID is circled. The third section asks "WHY DO YOU THINK SO?" with a handwritten response explaining that slime is solid because it can be held unlike liquids. The bottom section asks "WHAT MAKES SLIME FLOW?" with a handwritten response about breaking polymer bonds. The form includes a QR code and MONET logo at the bottom.
Example response from participant #25 of the evaluation.

This case study outlines our assessment methodology for measuring genuine learning outcomes in informal science education.

The American Chemical Society's Kids Zone program in San Diego 2025 sought to enhance their slime-making activity. Vanessa Rosa, Ph.D., integrated the chemistry underpinnings of borate and polyvinyl acetate to broaden the societal impact of polymer chemistry research for the Center for Molecularly Optimized Networks, with a robust learning assessment. They needed to demonstrate how participants progressed from simple observational descriptions to deeper chemical understanding of non-Newtonian fluids.

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Participants at the event (L), developing the 3D sub-scalar molecular animation (M), & Vanessa Rosa, Ph.D., cheesin' (R).

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Outcome: Engaged 90 participants across three age groups during a single outreach event, achieving a 50.9% increase in explanation sophistication from sensory observation to chemical mechanism reasoning within one activity session.

Our evaluation framework centered on capturing conceptual transformation through pre- and post-activity assessments.

Here's the animation we showed participants to emphasize the sub-scalar level of slime.

The data revealed that 58.9% of participants successfully identified the dual nature of non-Newtonian fluids, with 50.9% demonstrating progression from experiential descriptions to molecular-level understanding.

A donut chart showing the classification of slime responses from 90 participants. The breakdown is: 58.9% (53 participants) classified slime as "Both" solid and liquid, 17.8% (16 participants) as "Liquid", 14.4% (13 participants) as "Solid", 6.7% (6 participants) gave no response, 1.1% (1 participant) said "Neither", and 1.1% (1 participant) provided an incomplete response.
Is slime a solid, liquid, or both?

The implementation yielded concrete results: 57 participants provided initial observational responses, with 29 advancing to mechanism-based explanations.

This transformation was particularly effective in the 8-12 age group, which showed both highest participation (41.1%) and strongest conceptual gains.

Click to interact with the data.

A key lesson emerged regarding response rates: 39 participants provided no follow-up explanations, highlighting the need for stronger engagement strategies in post-activity assessment. Future implementations will focus on developing more effective methods for capturing complete response sets.

Let's collaborate!

If you're interested in outreach evaluation, activity design, or data visualization, please connect with Dr. Rosa!

Click to Connect

Next year, we plan to continue our annual collaborations with our partners at the American Chemical Society and look forward to sharing the outcomes!

Thank you for reading, if there are any templates or resources I can provide, feel free to reply or comment below.

It's a beautiful day to practice (impactful) science,

Vanessa Rosa, Ph.D.