“The best part of Sarah’s visit was when she was able to meet with our entire education team and prep them for conducting guest exit interviews.”
Overview
The Detroit Zoo is a 125-acre zoo inhabited by over 2,000 animals. Opened in 1928, the Zoo has been working to connect its audiences with wildlife conservation and animal welfare through outstanding and unique educational opportunities.
Aurora worked with the Education Department to increase their evaluation skills and capacity so they could observe, interview, and collect data with zoo visitors and program participants to their newly opened penguin center. As evaluation trainers supporting a new study, we co-developed the instruments, trained the team in collecting and entering the data, and collaboratively analyzed it together.
After our involvement, the Polk Penguin Conservation Center won the 2017 Exhibit Award from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. This is the top honor bestowed annually upon an accredited institution for excellence in exhibit design. An incredible amount of work went into creating the most extraordinary conservation center for penguins in the world and we were thrilled to contribute.
From the client
“We contracted Aurora Consulting for support in conducting a summative evaluation on our recently opened Polk Penguin Conservation Center. Sarah came out to the Zoo to walk through the space with us and talk about our goals for the building’s interpretive program. The best part of Sarah’s visit was when she was able to meet with our entire education team and prep them for conducting guest exit interviews. She helped us develop a survey tool together so that everyone was bought-in and understood what we were doing. The team spent several weeks collecting data. Sarah worked with us to analyze the data and make sense of the information. Our work together resulted in a complete evaluation of the space that will drive our decisions about revisions to the penguin center and future exhibit development. The process could not have been smoother or more worthwhile!”
– Claire Lannoye-Hall, Curator of Education, Detroit Zoological Society