Studying users of the why files

Science Web sites proliferate, offering users a virtual avalanche of inform ation that ranges widely across topic, message style, and quality of eviden ce. Users, too, are proliferating. But what kind of people visit these site s, how do they maneuver through the site once they arrive, and do they lear n anything about science as a result of their visits? For the past five yea rs, a team of researchers has been trying to answer these question by focus ing on one science Web site, the Why Files (http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu). Originally created as part of the National Institute for Science Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the site has won industry kudos fo r its efforts to offer users "the science behind the news". Most importantl y for this discussion, it has also served as a laboratory for examining the characteristics of Why Files users, for tracking their coping strategies o n the site itself, and for experiments to assess science learning. This dis cussion will offer some of the results of that research.