What and How Are We Evaluating? Meta-Evaluation of Climate Education Projects Funded by NASA

NASA Innovations in Climate Education (NICE) at Langley Research Center has funded 71 climate education initiatives over four years, each evaluated separately by external evaluators. NICE has undertaken a systematic meta-evaluation, seeking to understand the range of evaluations, approaches, and methods represented in this portfolio. When NASA asks for evaluation of funded projects, what happens? Which questions are asked and answered, using which tools? To what extent do the evaluations meet the needs of projects and program officers? How do they contribute to best practices in (climate) science education? These questions are important to ask about general STEM education work; the NICE portfolio provides a broad test case for thinking strategically, critically, and progressively about evaluation in our community. Our findings can inform the NASA, ASP, and STEM EPO communities and prompt us to consider a broad range of informative evaluation options.