1024-0224 Programmatic Form for FOUN

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Social Science Program

OMB Control Number 1024-0224
Current Expiration Date:8-31-2014

Programmatic Approval for NPS-Sponsored Public Surveys
1.

2.

Project Title: Formative Evaluation of a Visitor Center Exhibit
Design Plan, Fort Union National Monument,
New Mexico

Submission Date
7-16-2012

Abstract: Researchers from Northern Arizona University will conduct a formative evaluation of
planned exhibits for the Fort Union National Monument (FOUN) Visitor Center. The
Park’s exhibit designers will provide mockups and prototypes of the planned exhibits.
Groups of participants will examine the proposed exhibits to help evaluate exhibit
interpretive efficacy, placement and articulation. This project will assist the design
team in understanding how well the planned exhibits will work for visitors, and will
allow them to make design adjustments based on these findings.
(not to exceed 150 words)

3.

Principal Investigator Contact Information
First Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Street Address:
City:
Phone:
Email:

4.

Michael
Last Name: Kelly
Project Director
Northern Arizona University
PO Box 4099
Flagstaff
State: AZ
Zip code: 86011
928-523-5044
Fax: 928-523-7423
[email protected]

Park or Program Liaison Contact Information
First Name:
Title:
Park:
Street Address:
City:
Phone:
Email:

Marie
Last Name: Frias Sauter
Superintendent
Fort Union National Monument (FOUN)
PO Box 127
Watrous
State: NM
Zip code: 87753
505-425-8025 x222
Fax: 505-454-1115

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Project Information
5. Park(s) For Which Research is to be Conducted:
6. Survey Dates:

07/27/2012

Fort Union National Monument
TO

08/29/2012

7. Type of Information Collection Instrument (Check ALL that Apply)

8.

Mail-Back
Questionnaire
Other (explain)

On-Site
Questionnaire

Face-to-Face
Interview

Telephone
Survey

Focus Groups

Survey Justification:
(Use as much space
as needed; if
necessary include
additional
explanation on a
separate page.)

Social science research in support of park planning and management is
mandated in the NPS Management Policies 2006 (Section 8.11.1, “Social
Science Studies”). The NPS pursues a policy that facilitates social science
studies in support of the NPS mission to protect resources and enhance the
enjoyment of present and future generations (National Park Service Act of
1916, 38 Stat 535, 16 USC 1, et seq.). NPS policy mandates that social science
research will be used to provide an understanding of park visitors, the nonvisiting public, gateway communities and regions, and human interactions
with park resources. Such studies are needed to provide a scientific basis for
park planning, development.
Each year approximately 11,000 visitors come to Fort Union National
Monument. Visitors come to Fort Union National Monument to learn about
the history associated with the site, walk the 1.25 mile self-guided trail of the
fort grounds, view Santa Fe Trail ruts, and enjoy the vast openness of the
outdoors. Visitors normally spend an average of 1 to 1 ½ hours experiencing
the park.
The exhibits at the Fort Union National Monument (FOUN) Visitor Center are
outdated and narrow in perspective. They do not reflect the primary
interpretive themes of the Monument. The managers of Fort Union would
like to attract local Hispanic community member and would rely on visitor
input on planned replacement exhibits to help ensure their effective
representation of the local culture. This effort will allow park managers to
connect with the local Hispanic community to receive needed feedback and
opinions on the planned interpretive efforts. The proposed research is
needed to better understand how well the new, planned exhibits will help
visitors understand the history and culture of the park. This research will help
National Park Service managers and designers understand the needs of
visitors when using interpretive exhibits. The feedback provided by
participants will be incorporated in to the final exhibit designs for the Fort
Union National Monument Visitor Center.
Because of New Mexico’s large Hispanic population, FOUN park managers are
interested in determining ways to increase visitation of this population. The
history of Fort Union is directly related to Hispanic settlers how they helped
shape and influence the surrounding physical, historical and cultural
landscape of Fort Union. The 2010 US Census data indicated that 82.9 % of
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population in the communities surrounding the park in southern Mora county
and northern San Miguel county self-identified themselves as Hispanic or
Latino. This research will in part help National Park Service managers and
exhibit designers understand the perspective of members of the local
community concerning the planned interpretive exhibits in their draft stage.
The feedback provided by participants will be incorporated in to the final
exhibit designs for the Fort Union National Monument Visitor Center
9.

Survey
Methodology: (Use
as much space as
needed; if
necessary include
additional
explanation on a
separate page.)

(a) Respondent Universe:

The respondent universe will consist of residents of San Miguel and Mora
Counties, living within 60 miles of Fort Union National Monument.

(b) Sampling Plan/Procedures:

Park managers identified thirty local community groups and organizations
already associated informally with the park (see shaded box below). A
snowball sampling method will be used to identify the participants for the
focus groups. Lead individuals from each of the groups listed below will be
contacted by telephone. Park staff will use a pre-designed script (Attachment
1) to initiate the contact. The person contacted will be asked if they would be
willing to identify at least three additional people in the community who
might be willing to participate in the research.
Park staff will create a list of community members to contact. Each person
will be contacted by phone using scripted language (Attachment 2). The
sampling method will continue until a list of 100 potential participants are
identified. A total of 70 names will be randomly drawn from this list and
scheduled to a focus group session. Additional names may be drawn
randomly from the remaining 30 proposed participants as necessary to
achieve a total of 70 participants. Participants will be reminded of their
appointment a few days before using a pre-designed script (Attachment 3).
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Asociacion de Las acequias - Mora
Buena Vista Volunteer Fire Departments
CCHP – Las Vegas Citizens' Committee for Historic Preservation
Chacon Volunteer Fire Departments
CHET Volunteer Fire Departments
City of Las Vegas
Community Center in Cleveland
Golondrines Volunteer Fire Departments
Helping Hands, Inc.
La Jicarita Community Enterprise
Las Vegas Arts Council
Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce
Las Vegas Rough Riders Museum
Luna Community College – Las Vegas
Main Street Las Vegas
Mora Independent School
Mora Land Grant
Mora Valley Chamber of Commerce – Mora
Mora Volunteer Fire Departments
New Mexico Highlands University – Las Vegas

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•
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New Mexico Small Business Development Center – Las Vegas
Ocate Volunteer Fire Departments
The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West – Montezuma
The Cleveland Mill
USFWS in Las Vegas
Village of Wagon Mound
Volunteer Fire Departments
Wagon Mound: Volunteer Fire Departments
Watrous community Needs Focus
Wind River Ranch

The University of Northern Arizona will provide each participant will be
offered a $25 voucher that will be used to compensate them for their travel time
and expenses to and from the focus group site. This research involves a large
rural area and would require several hours of travel to the designated research
location. The researchers have used small incentives in this economically
challenged community to cover the cost of travel for two focus groups studies
previously approved by OMB (see: 1024-0224 Bandelier National Monument
Visitor Needs Survey - 2008; and 1024-0224 Bandelier National Monument. Visitor
Center Formative Evaluation – 2006).

(c) Instrument Administration:

Focus Groups:
After a brief introduction and consent disclosure (see Attachment 4), there
will be an opportunity for the focus group participants to view and evaluate
the proposed exhibits in the visitor center. Participants will be managed in
groups of five as they are guided by a facilitator though the mock exhibits.
The research will use a scorecard of written statements (see Attachment 5) to
be used by participants at each exhibit. Each group tour of the exhibits is
expected to take no longer than one hour to complete and will be facilitated
by a trained evaluator whose conversations will be structured by a
predesigned protocol (see Attachment 6).
Evaluation Scorecard:
The participants will use a scorecard (see Attachment 5) to evaluate the
exhibits in the visitor center. After experiencing each exhibit, the respondents
will be given a minute to answer the questions related to the message,
placement, and sequencing of the exhibit. They will be asked to rate each
exhibit using a likert scale measure of 1(strongly disagree) – 5 (strongly
agree). The scorecard will also include space for comments after each
question.

(d) Expected Response Rate/Confidence Levels:

Using a snowball sampling method, we will continue until we have a total of
70 people needed to participate in this study. Because this study design is
qualitative and uses purposive samples selected from targeted groups, we will
not use the results to generalize the findings for all visitors
Data analysis of the scaled numeric responses will includes graphical displays

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of the distribution of responses in a bar chart and will summarize the central
tendency of responses by calculating the mode with ‘spread’ measured by
quartiles or percentiles. This analysis technique is entirely appropriate for
formative exhibit evaluation purposes and subsequent feedback to the design
process, which is dynamic by nature. Statistical inferences may be examined if
needed, using appropriate analysis of variance techniques to analyze
responses across groups. Participant comments will be categorized and
intercalated with the numeric scoring in explanation of the evaluation results.

(e) Strategies for dealing with potential non-response bias:

The initial contact strategy will help the park understand potential nonresponse bias. The staff member contacting and recruiting potential
participants by phone will ask three questions (see below).
1. Are you aware of the National Park Service unit called Fort Union
National Monument, located in Watrous, New Mexico?"
2. Have you visited Fort Union National Monument in the last 2 years?
3. On average, how many times a year do you visit a national or state
park?
This data will be used to compare qualitatively some differences between
participants and those choosing not to participate.

(f) Description of any pre-testing and peer review of the methods and/or

instrument (recommended):
The protocols and instrument are based on work previously conducted by the
Principal Investigator at two National Park units with similar visitation
numbers, located near rural communities. In developing these tools for use
at Fort Union, the research team worked closely with the park's interpretive
staff who applied their experience and knowledge gained by interacting with
park visitors. The instrument and methodology were reviewed by the outside
design team, as well as interpretive staff from other parks in the region.
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Burden Estimates:

We plan to contact at least 100 individuals during the first round of
telephone calls. With an anticipated response rate of 70%, we expect to
receive 70 total responses for this collection.
We expect that the initial contact time will be at least five minutes per
person (100 x 5 minutes = 8 hours). We expect that 30 (30%) persons
contacted will refuse to participate during the initial contact, for those
individuals we will record their reason for refusal and ask them to
answer the three questions that will be used for the non-response check.
For those who agree to participate (n= 70) we expect that will attend the
focus group sessions, with that, an additional 70 minutes will be required
to complete process (70 response x 70 minutes = 82 hours). The burden
for this collection is estimated to be 90 hours.

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11.

Estimated Number of Contacts

Estimation of Time

Total Number of Initial
Contacts

100

Estimated Time (mins.) to
Complete Initial Contact

Estimated number of
refusals
Total Number of
Responses

30
Time to complete the
focus group sessions

70

5

Estimation of Respondent
Burden
Estimated Burden Hours

8

70

Estimated Burden Hours

82

Total Burden 90 hours

Reporting Plan: The final report for this project will include a brief literature review, research
results, description of study methodology, recommendations to for the Visitor
Center Exhibit Plan, and a description of study limitations.
The report will be submitted to the Fort Union National Monument
superintendent for review and comment. Researchers will be available to make a
public presentation about project findings. The report will also be made available
to all participants. Finally, the final report will be submitted to managing NPS
staff at the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. A copy of the
final report will be sent to the NPS Social Science Program, as required, for
inclusion in the Social Science Studies Collection.

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