This image is titled “Where Do You Start?” It shows that goals and evaluation questions are connected with arrows going both directions. The slide explains that goals should be measurable and that evaluation questions should align with the goals.
Brean Prefontaine encourages public engagement with science practitioners to evaluate the impact of their work and provides the tools to do so. Image captured from Prefontaine's workshop presentation.

The 2025 Research!America Public Engagement Content Awards, presented by Research!America, recognized Brean Prefontaine, a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University, for developing freely accessible evaluation resources for public engagement practitioners— a need that is widely acknowledged but often under-supported.

     Prefontaine was motivated to develop the resources by her recognition that informal STEM practitioners do remarkable work connecting science with communities — but when it comes to evaluation, many feel overwhelmed, under-resourced, or unsure where to begin. Evaluation can feel technical, time-consuming, and disconnected from the day-to-day realities of outreach, and her award-winning project addresses this gap directly.

     The goal of the curriculum she developed with support from the Research!America award is to help practitioners either get started with evaluation or think more deeply about the evaluation they are already conducting. The intended audience includes STEM public engagement professionals who currently conduct little or no formal evaluation of their programs.

Her curriculum walks learners through a clear, manageable process:

  • What evaluation is and why it matters
  • Identifying project or event goals
  • Writing meaningful evaluation questions
  • Developing data sources and a data collection plan
  • Analyzing and interpreting data
  • Using findings to improve future programs

     Rather than presenting evaluation as a compliance requirement, the curriculum reframes it as a tool for learning, growth, and impact. Prefontaine is currently developing a comprehensive workbook to accompany these materials. She hopes that these open-access tools lower barriers and build evaluation capacity across the field. If your work includes designing and implementing public engagement with science events and activities, take a look at Prefontaine’s evaluation and assessment materials.

By Sai Navya Vadlamudi, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant