Evaluation Systems

This section provides links to evaluation systems, or online resources to identify and measure outcomes and to analyze evaluation results for these outcomes.

For each evaluation system, there is a designation of Beginner, Intermediate, and/or Advanced. This indicates the skill level that each system targets and should help in selecting the most appropriate resource(s).

Ecological Understanding as a Guideline for the Evaluation of Nonformal Education (EUGENE)

Beginner  Intermediate

Available at:  http://projecteugene.org

EUGENE is a free, easy-to-use evaluation tool for assessing middle school students’ baseline knowledge of seven specific ecological principles as well as their knowledge gains as a result of participating in environmental education programs.  To help environmental educators choose which principles to focus on, EUGENE provides descriptions of each of the seven ecological principles it was designed to measure.  Based on the selections of users, EUGENE 1) develops pre- and post-test questionnaires to measure changes in students’ knowledge of ecology, 2) provides a database for recording collected data, and 3) automatically generates results to help evaluate the particular environmental education program.  EUGENE also displays information about how a particular program’s results compare with results from other environmental education programs.

Please note that the system is currently being pilot tested.  If you have feedback or suggestions for improvement, please contact Michelle Andrews at mcandrews@fs.fed.us.