Knowledge generation is done in-house at COSI, in the local community, and much more broadly through work done in collaboration with informal learning institutions around the world. Through evaluation and research, CRE continually seeks to better understand human learning as it happens in non-school settings across the lifespan.

CRE leads all in-house studies with much of the work occurring in the public areas of COSI. We find that COSI guests appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of their experiences and are usually happy to engage with our hands-on, creative, and interactive data collection approaches. We also work with collaborators around the U.S. and beyond on a wide variety of projects ranging from large-scale, national studies, to institution specific programming. We intentionally blend our portfolio to include basic and applied research, program and exhibit evaluations, and often conduct evaluative research on programs when appropriate.

Knowledge generation also happens at COSI with external partners. Labs in Life at COSI are real, working research laboratories of The Ohio State University. Situated in the “Life” exhibit area on COSI’s 2nd floor, the purpose of the labs is to move research laboratories from being hidden within the university, to being visible where guests both learn about research and are often the subjects of the studies. This is both a benefit to the researchers who can access large numbers of potential subjects, and to the guests whose visits are enriched by their participation in the studies.

In addition to our Labs in Life at COSI partners, COSI invites and hosts other researchers, usually from universities but also from industry and not-for-profit groups, to engage with guests. CRE oversees this work to ensure the study topics and methods are appropriate, to offer support for integrating the research into the visitor experience, and to ensure successful outcomes for the researchers and COSI’s guests.

Knowledge sharing is an important function in the process of science. CRE publishes in professional, peer-reviewed journals; writes articles for professional associations’ magazines; presents at local, national, and international conferences; hosts learning discussions, trainings, and other professional learning opportunities; and continually seeks ways to share what has been learned on a wide array of topics associated with informal, nonformal, incidental, and everyday learning. CRE team members are also active in their professional associations, volunteering for committees and leadership roles, elected into governance, and engaging with colleagues to learn from each other.

Internally, CRE team members work with the Executive Leadership Team and all divisions of COSI to bring current research on practice into decision making, planning, and teaching. CRE shepherds COSI’s Research Agenda and leads COSI’s thinking on the theories that underlie COSI’s Philosophy of Learning.

Click here to see the peer reviewed articles authored by CRE team members.

Do you need someone to evaluate a program or research project? Do you have a really cool research or program idea and would like a partner who can help get it funded? Are you in need of a critical voice to help your institution develop programming, build capacity, or develop new plans for the future? Below are some of many things we would love to help you with!

Evaluation. Our team brings a wealth of expertise in studying informal education, from museums and libraries to online media. We provide rigorous evaluation services at all phases, customizing each project to meet your needs and budget. We bring expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods and a client-centered approach to our work. We have deep experience serving as evaluators on grants funded by NSF, IMLS and other federal agencies.

Research. Our team also regularly lead research studies that investigate critical issues in many social science areas, including, but not limited to: informal learning, museum studies, urban and regional planning, environmental and educational psychology, science education, and community engagement. Our team can lead conceptualization, design, and execution of all phases of research, from literature review and study design to analysis and dissemination of results.

Since 2019, with funding from the National Science Foundation (#1906396) COSI CRE has been a leader in researching the long-term effects of intensive STEM-based youth programming. Click here to learn more about Roads Taken: A long-term follow-up study of program strategies and long-term impacts of intensive, multi-year, stem youth programs.

Facilitation and Project Planning. Many endeavors benefit from facilitation through strategic planning and alignment of goals, audiences, and outcomes. Whether for a program, a department, or an institution, we provide facilitation and planning services, including the development of logic models, competitive landscape analyses, and articulation of impact statements and indicators of success.

Capacity-Building and Support. Our experienced team can help your staff incorporate evaluative thinking techniques into their practice. We conduct workshops on evaluation skills, techniques, and tools customized to your context. We also provide one-on-one mentoring to increase your staff’s capacity to evaluate experiences.

Consulting and Advisement. Our team will provide critical review of materials, plans, and strategies. We offer clear recommendations based on research and evaluation, strategic priorities, and trends in the field that will help you advance programs, exhibits, and guest-centered practices in your institution.

Proposal Development. Drawing upon extensive experience with funders, we will collaborate on the development of your proposal and create an evaluation or research plan to align with your program and fulfill funder requirements. We can assist in the development of supporting materials such as impact statements or logic models and provide critical review of your proposal.

Many know COSI as a place to visit with friends or family for a day of fun science learning. Fewer know COSI as part research institute, with a multi-faceted approach to performing and enabling quality research at, by, and for COSI. As a science center, CRE works closely with COSI’s Director of Science Content to expand the ways COSI contributes to scientific knowledge generation and sharing.

COSI works in collaboration with entities such as universities, schools, and other informal learning organizations to engage in knowledge generation on lifelong learning and knowledge sharing of the results of our collaborative efforts. Many of these projects are made possible with funding from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Institute for Museum and Library Services, National Institutes for Health, NOAA, and NASA. To successfully navigate the complex federal funding landscape, COSI’s Sponsored Projects Office - based in CRE – ensures that proposal preparation, funding applications, and post-award management are well supported and compliant with federal regulations.

CRE conducts studies at COSI as much as possible both for COSI and for other projects. The reason is simple: as with the Labs in Life, engaging guests in meaningful and creative ways in the process of science, we can demonstrate that science is not just the body of what we know, but is about what we can learn. To keep the research focused, the COSI Research Agenda, guided by COSI’s Sr. Director of Research on behalf of CRE, drives the studies COSI conducts and the grants COSI seeks to move the institution forward. CRE also supports COSI’s Philosophy of Learning through ensuring the theoretical foundations of the philosophy are included in programs and experiences.

Housed in CRE, The COSI Learning Institute works with corporations, organizations, and schools to help trainers and educators “shake-up” their teaching to improve learning outcomes. We help educators and communicators discover theoretically grounded ways to make learning more engaging, more fun, and to better ‘stick.’