September 1, 2011 Dear Chapter Directors and Coordinators: As has been described in the 2011-12 Chapter Letter of Agreement, EnvironMentors (EM) is involved in significant evaluation to learn more about what components of the program prove most effective towards building interest among our student to pursue college degree program and careers in environmentally-related STEM fields. By measuring our effectiveness, we hope to have reliable data that will support future expansion of additional EnvironMentors chapters. Our partner, Colorado State University (CSU) will oversee all evaluation activities in the 2011-12 program year. The EnvironMentors evaluation program includes administering a student Pre Program Survey at the beginning of your program year in all 2011 and a Post Program Survey at the conclusion of your program in April/May 2012. The EM evaluation program also includes student focus groups held during the National Fair in May 2012, and monitoring student postings related to their research on the EM Online Community. All three methods of data collection—the pre-post program surveys, focus groups, and online research monitoring – are evaluation deliverables in our current National Science Foundation grant. That grant also provides funding to each chapter to help administer these various activities (see the Letter of Agreement distributed earlier) This package includes all the materials needed to carry out the Pre-Program Surveys. We are relying on your chapter’s cooperation to distribute the Pre and the Post Program Surveys to support evaluation component of EnvironMentors programming this year. Please work with your chapter coordinator(s) and partner teacher(s) to administer the Pre Program Survey via hard copy OR online distribution to students (link is provided below). All completed surveys and signed parental consent letters should be sent to Dr. Brett Bruyere, CSU Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at the address indicated below by October 28th. If you choose to distribute surveys online, only signed parental consent forms need to be sent to CSU. Following are a list of materials included in this package along with step-by-step instructions on administering the EnvironMentors Pre and Post Program Surveys. This Evaluation package includes the following materials: The Pre Program Evaluation Survey Instrument, revised for the 2011-12 academic year, provided in hardcopy and link to online version of survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QVZ9SGC Parental Letter of Informed Consent to be distributed to students by signature of parent or guardian for students under 18. Letter of Consent to participate in the survey for students who are 18 years old or older. Letter to Teachers requesting their support and cooperation in returning the Pre and Post Program Surveys. Postage paid envelope addressed to Dr. Brett Bruyere to return Pre Program Surveys that were distributed in hard copy format OR if you choose to distribute the online link to the survey, the postage paid envelope will contain signed parental consent forms.
Please follow the basic steps outlined on the next page to conduct the Pre-Program Survey with your students. Step 1 Provide your teachers with the enclosed Letter to Teachers concerning the evaluation and discuss with them the importance of both the Pre and Post Program Surveys to EnvironMentors programming. Step 2 Make sure you are familiar with the voluntary and confidential nature of this evaluation. These points are included on the Survey Introduction, page 1 which you or your teacher should read out loud to the students. Confidentiality is also discussed in the Letter of Parental Consent to ensure that parents/guardians are aware of their child’s anonymity and safety throughout our Evaluation Program. Step 3 Work with your teacher to schedule a date during which the Pre Program Survey will be administered and decide whether you will distribute the hardcopy form of the survey or whether you will utilize the online survey link to students. Step 4 Make sure to distribute the letters of parental consent approximately one week before the date the survey will be administered. Note on Parental Consent Forms: It is acceptable to administer the survey and send completed surveys to CSU prior to receiving parental consent forms since such a survey would be a normal part of a program evaluation. However, survey results cannot be analyzed or distributed until the parental consents are in-hand. Please remember to send signed consent forms once you have them. Note on IRB Approval: CSU IRB Office has granted an extension to the blanket IRB letter of approval for the Pre Post Program research provided last year for all collaborating universities last year. Step 5 On the date scheduled to conduct the evaluation, distribute copies of the survey OR online survey link, read the points on page three, distribute survey or link to students, emphasize that this is not a test, there are no right or wrong answers, student’s responses will not be graded in any way, and that they will have10- 15 minutes to complete the survey. Step 6 Once students have completed the evaluation, collect all surveys and/or signed parental consent forms, in the postage paid, addressed envelope provided to you and mail the full package on or before October 28th to: Dr. Brett Bruyere Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Dept Warner College of Natural Resources Colorado State University Campus Delivery 1480 Fort Collins, CO 80523 Please do not hesitate to contact either of us if you have any questions regarding EnvironMentors Evaluation Program and/or administering this survey. Best regards, Susan Carlson EnvironMentors Susan@ncseonline.org
Dr. Brett Bruyere Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Dept Bruyere@lamar.colostate.edu
2
Please make sure to review the following points related to the voluntary and confidential nature of the EnvironMentors Evaluation before administering the survey. 1. The National EnvironMentors Program, of which your chapter is a member, is conducting an evaluation to assess the overall effectiveness of the program. 2. The evaluation will include a pre-test which needs to be conducted by October 28, 2011, and a Post-test that will occur in early May 2012. 3. The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes for students to complete. 4. Your students input is very valuable and will help us continue to improve the EnvironMentors program during the rest of the year and for students who participate in the program in future years. 5. Students’ participation in this evaluation is voluntary. If for any reason, any student chooses not to participate in this survey, this will not result in any form of penalty or loss of benefits provided through the EnvironMentors program, such as scholarships. 6. Students responses to the questions included in this survey will be kept in strict confidence. No one outside of the EnvironMentors research team will know who provided the information or even what the information is. If EnvironMentors determines to write about, or present the results of the survey, No individual will be identified in these written materials.
3