Tauranga charitable trust goes national

Chris Duggan, House of Science NZ founder and CEO. Supplied photo.

Three years after starting a science education resurgence in Tauranga, the House of Science is taking its programmes nationwide.

Former Tauranga Girls' College Head of Science Chris Duggan, appalled at the lack of science knowledge possessed by incoming Year 9 students, left her teaching job in 2014 to set up the House of Science.

Supported by a horde of willing volunteers, Chris developed, and now delivers, a range of science resource kits to the region's primary schools.

'These kits contain everything a year 1-8 teacher needs to get their students involved in hands-on science experiments,” says Chris.

The kits are sponsored by local businesses and range in topics from flight science to forensics, food science to force & friction. Tauranga currently has 48 of these kits available to 55 House of Science member schools, and each week more than 2000 children are using them to learn science.

Alongside the resource kits, the House of Science also delivers comprehensive teacher professional development to primary, intermediate and secondary teachers, runs after school and holiday programmes, has a successful VEX robotics club and provides a science tutoring service.

The organisation receives no government funding, so relies on sponsorship of local businesses, community grants, donations and membership fees.

'January 2016 was the start of an exciting year, as the Wright Family Foundation commenced a partnership with the House of Science. This facilitated a move into Tauranga's CBD and encouraged us to start thinking beyond the local region.”

The recently-established House of Science NZ Charitable Trust is a national body responsible for developing resource kits, and supports the establishment of House of Science branches across the length of the country. Each branch is an independent charitable trust and raises funding locally, while the New Zealand head office manages the website teachers use to book a kit and provides training for branch staff and volunteers.

Founding Chair of House of Science (NZ) Dr David Tanner says it's a logical growth progression in the development of the House of Science brand in New Zealand.

'This initiative has added significant value to the local Tauranga community, and others across the country want to replicate the success in their communities.”

Chris has been a finalist in the 2015 and 2016 women of influence awards, and was recently named a Kiwibank ‘local hero'. She describes herself as an ‘accidental hero'.

'I saw a need, and decided someone needed to do something. The speed and extent at which this concept has grown blows me away. I am so excited that the goal of raising scientific literacy across all ages and ethnicities is becoming a reality; one family, one school, one town at a time.”

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1 comment

House of Science

Posted on 02-04-2017 13:40 | By Margaret Murray_Benge

As a nation we need to improve our productivity, as we have the 3rd highest standard of living in the OECD, and now we have slipped to 18 ?. So to have a House of Science going Nation wide, how amazing that is, for it will open our children's eyes to the wonder of science, and will give them a chance to change the world. Education is the key to success to a good life for we as individuals and for our country. Thanks you Chris and the Wright Foundation.


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