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Introduction |  Parent Interview |  Guiding Questions

CASE STUDY: ZOOLOGY WORKSHOP FOR GIRLS

A large university has received funding to conduct a month-long summer workshop on mammalian zoology. The workshop is available to girls from low-income high schools in the nearby community. Each workshop session accommodates 40 girls. Besides instruction in mammalian anatomy and physiology, the workshop emphasizes frequent interaction with specialists in the veterinary sciences, both at the university and in the community. The purpose of the workshop is to increase the girls' motivation to consider science as an academic field and as a potential career.

The university conducted two sessions of Zoology Workshop the first summer. For this first round, project staff conducted formative evaluations by giving questionnaires and interviews to all instructors, girls, and veterinary liaisons. For the second summer, which is about to start, the project staff want to include interviews with a sample of the girls' parents or guardians, which would be conducted at the end of the workshop. In particular, the staff want to gauge how well informed parents are about the workshop, how supportive they are of the workshop, and whether they themselves view a science-related career as a viable option for their daughters.

The project staff have drafted a Parent Interview protocol. A copy of this draft follows. (You may wish to print it out for ease of reference.) You are told that the interview will be used with approximately 20 parents and that administration of the interview needs to take no longer than 1 hour. Please consider how the interview could be improved. You will be asked to respond to questions about the changes you would make.

PARENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL FOR SUMMER ZOOLOGY WORKSHOPS (printer friendly)

  • Appreciate your making the time to talk to me today.
  • Your daughter recently finished a Zoology Workshop at the University. This workshop involved a big commitment for students.
  • The workshop leaders also want to communicate well with parents.
  • Main reason we're talking is so that I can find out if you feel well-informed about the workshop and if you have suggestions for improving it. I'd also like your thoughts on the kind of experience your daughter had in the workshop.
  • I'm going ask you a series of questions. Altogether, we should finish this interview in an hour or less.
  • Your answers will be anonymous; your name (and the name of your daughter) will not be used when we summarize the results of these interviews.

  1. Once your daughter was signed up, do you feel that you received adequate information about the Zoology Worskhop?





  2. What were your main sources of information about the Zoology Workshop?



  3. Did your daughter talk to you regularly about the Zoology Workshop? If so, what did she talk about?



  4. How would you describe your daughter's attitude toward the Zoology Workshop?



  5. What do you think were the best parts of the Zoology Workshop experience for your daughter?



  6. What is your own reaction to the Zoology Workshop?



  7. What do you think are the strengths of the Zoology Workshop?



  8. What would you recommend changing in the Zoology Workshop?



  9. Do you think your daughter is more interested in science after taking the Zoology Workshop? Is she more likely to consider a science career?

Thank you so much for your feedback about the Zoology Workshop. Again, I really appreciate your willingness to spend time helping us out.