Exploring our Interpretive Practice: An Impact Evaluation.

Interpretation is a critical aspect of any zoo or aquarium's educational mission. This study evaluated the impact of Tiger Trail, a new habitat for Sumatran tigers at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park featuring an immersive environment where the visitor's journey unfolds through a storyline narrative. The study measured visitor knowledge of key messages, recall of interpretive elements, and reaction to the exhibit, and found that Tiger Trail visitors demonstrated significantly more knowledge of the exhibit's key messages relative to a matched comparison group. The study also found that visitors who interacted with an interpreter or keeper exhibited slightly more knowledge relative to exhibit visitors who did not, and that those visitors expressed significantly more positive ratings of the exhibit and their self-assessed learnings.There is increasing interest in measuring the results of interpretive efforts in zoological settings (Li, 2014; Falk, Reinhard, Vernon, Bronnenkant, Deans & Heimlich, 2007). The International Zoo Educators Exploring our Interpretive Practice: An Impact Evaluation James Marshall Professor of Educational Leadership, San Diego State University, United States of America Association (2015) states that "[e]valuation can be in many forms such as needs assessments or exhibition evaluations. It can also be used to gauge things such as the effectiveness of informal education or education techniques" (para. 1). This article presents results from an impact evaluation of the Tiger Trail exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The study was commissioned to understand visitors' reactions to the exhibit and their activities within it, and investigated reception of key messaging. As interaction between visitors and zoo personnel has been established as a positive influence on visitor outcomes that include increased knowledge, conservation understanding and potential action (Anderson, Kelling, Pressley-Keough, Bloomsmith &Maple, 2003; Broad & Weiler, 1998), the study also compared outcomes between visitors who interacted with zoo personnel, and those who did not. The results of this evaluation were one important component that helped Tiger Trail receive the Association of Zoos & Aquarium's 2015 Top Honors Exhibit Award. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]