Rueben McMillian Free Library Association

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County and the Roger & Gloria Jones children's Center for Science & Technology (OH WOW!) will promote two relatively new, complimentary lab spaces in downtown Youngstown for the purpose of cross germination of participants and evaluating skill building that occurs in these participants in each location. In addition to surveys, Youngstown Ohio Learning Opportunities will utilize "stackable" badges to track skill development of participants and measure whether badges are an effective tools. The project will track whether participants move between the two labs for learning. The project will benefit other libraries and museums that wish to measure the impact of learning in complimentary spaces on shared audiences, as well as the effectiveness of badges for multi-organization learning.