RESEARCH AND EVALUATION INTERN

Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) is seeking a graduate-level student intern to support the Research and Evaluation Manager (RE Manager) in the Empathy at the Heart project, which is a grant-funded initiative designed to foster the development of empathy through a multitude of projects--programs, exhibits, and other resource development--inside and outside the museum. The anticipated internship period will be during the school year 2025-2026.

Through hands-on training, scaffolding, and weekly supervision meetings, the intern will work with the RE Manager to collect data with adult and child visitors and support the analysis of several ongoing evaluation projects.

Empathy-related projects that the student intern may support include:

• Partnering with Museum educators on prototyping and evaluating programs;
• Collecting and analyzing visitor feedback related to exhibits in different stages of development and design from prototyping through the remedial evaluation;
• Designing and prototyping methods to collect children’s feedback about their experiences with exhibits and programs.

The intern will gain knowledge and first-hand experience related to family learning (especially about character development and empathy), exhibit development and evaluation, and applied research in museum settings.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Participate in evaluation and applied research in an informal education setting;
• Develop mixed method data collection skills through hands-on opportunities;
• Explore the role of informal education settings in supporting family-oriented, play-based learning.

PROJECTS, ASSIGNMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS

• Attend weekly supervision meetings to discuss internship goals, problem-solving, and any other topics related to professional development;
• Participate in trainings related to conducting culturally responsive and inclusive audience research, visitor interaction, data collection, and management;
• Conduct data collection including, but not limited to, surveys, observations, and interviews;
• Manage data by inputting and organizing information in a timely manner;
• Participate in research or evaluation tasks related to other museum exhibits or programs as needed.

SKILLS REQUIRED

• Prior experience and/or coursework in education, social science research, evaluation (or related experience),with some experience conducting evaluations in educational settings;
• Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods and analytical skills;
• Interest in and experience with working with caregivers and young children;
• Understanding of issues surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion related to research and evaluation;
• Understanding of ethical issues related to human-subjects research;
• Highly responsible and detail-oriented, with strong organizational skills;
• Familiarity with online survey platforms (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Google Forms);
• Demonstrated communication skills, both verbal and written;
• Available to work some hours on either Saturday or Sunday;
• Ability to converse in a non-English language, preferred.

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS

• The internship is in-person at Boston Children’s Museum.
• The internship requires a minimum of 21 hours/week, for approximately 34 weeks.
• Hours will be coordinated around the student's class and/or work schedules. The student’s schedule will also need to be set with the Museum site supervisor, and will include some weekends for data collection.
• Depending on the project, the intern may be collecting data with the RE manager and Museum educators outside the Museum building, in the nearby communities.
• The Internship period must be completed on or before June 30, 2026.