With a happy history of working together, the Oakland Zoo invited me to help with the major undertaking of creating a new children’s zoo. Hundreds of families participated in front-end research and summative evaluation studies for this renowned children’s facility in California. We used intercept interviews, exit surveys, visitation pattern surveys, and multiple observation studies to inform species selection and program planning, and later to assess impacts. Data revealed high levels of satisfaction, increased repeat visits and increased institutional membership purchases because of the new children’s zoo..
