Scitech

Our Chevron Science Theatre now has a dedicated viewing area for wheelchair users! Thanks to a generous grant from Variety - the Children's Charity WA, we've created a space for two mobility devices to make our science shows more accessible. We are working to increase accessibility in our spaces in the Scitech Discovery Centre, an important part of our aim to provide engaging and inspiring science experiences to all Western Australians.

What do you think will Perth look like in 2050? Scitech and Committee for Perth have teamed up with Futurist Dr Ben Hamer for Perth 2050, a project to understand how we expect our city to change over time and our priorities and perspectives for shaping the future. We're conducting research with key industry members, youth, and the community and we also need your input through our survey! Your responses will help paint a picture of what life could look like in Perth in 2050 and some of the key things we need to think about today to get there. Have your say here: https://bit.ly/47dt9iy Survey will close at 11:59pm on 23 September.

Scitech holds a special place in the hearts of so many Western Australians. If our Discovery Centre or outreach programs have made an impact in your life, consider a donation to Scitech with the option of leaving a gift in your will. Your donation - big or small - helps us continue inspiring the next generation of scientists and keeps our science programs thriving for kids across WA. As part of Include a Charity Week, we’ve partnered with online wills provider Gathered Here to offer supporters access to a free online will with free and unlimited updates for life. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3XedI54

Registrations are now open for Lighthouse Maths 2025! Lighthouse Maths is a teacher professional learning program which uses a problem-solving approach to maths lessons to equip primary educators with powerful strategies and techniques to elevate their maths teaching practice. Provided free to select schools thanks to the support of Chevron Australia, the program has seen some incredible results with students who participate in Lighthouse Maths classes achieving on average eight months of additional learning beyond the expected growth of one year. Watch the video to hear how the program has transformed teachers' and students' skills and confidence in maths. Teachers can also come along to two information sessions: 📅 Eddystone Primary School Wednesday, 11 September 4 – 5.30pm 📅 Ashburton Drive Primary School Wednesday, 9 October 4 – 5.30pm Find out more here: https://bit.ly/3z9ni14

Our teams have been calculating their stats for the last financial year and we are excited to have reached a few all-time records! In the financial year 2023-2024 we saw the highest ever: ✦ general public visits to the Scitech Discovery Centre at 273,710 ✦ Scitech Memberships at almost 16,000 ✦ visitors to the Scitech Planetarium at 171,713 Beyond the Discovery Centre, our Statewide team travelled 46,000km across Western Australia bringing science to regional and remote communities who might not otherwise have access. We had almost 2,000 teacher engagements through our professional learning programs, helping them to equip the next generation with the skills they need for the future. And we saw around 2 million online engagements in our digital content, ensuring everyone can access fun and inspiring science experiences. We want to thank the Government of Western Australia, Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, our corporate partners Alcoa, Chevron Australia, Woodside Energy, Rio Tinto and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., community partners, and our wonderful donors who share our purpose in allowing all Western Australians to find their love of science. As a charity, we could not do it without their support. We’re so proud of our staff whose passion and dedication have resulted in these amazing achievements. Thank you to our visitors, members and educators for making these numbers happen and for engaging with our exhibits, shows, programs, events and online content throughout the year. This year is already shaping up to be just as big and we are excited to show you what we have in store!

Congratulations to the award winners and the Western Australia Science Hall of Fame inductees for the 2024 Premier's Science Awards! We are proud to be a community partner of this celebration of the incredible scientists, innovators and educators in WA! 🙌

We were delighted to welcome Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Science Mission Directorate Sandra E. Connelly to talk to our visitors at the Scitech Discovery Centre as part of National Science Week. Sandra gave two fascinating presentations about the diverse science and research being done at NASA and went through some of their recent missions and discoveries. The audience also got the opportunity to ask questions, and it was great to see so many budding space enthusiasts being curious about our universe. Thank you to the U.S. Embassy in Australia and Consul General Siriana Nair for providing this amazing opportunity for our visitors to learn about and be inspired by the science happening at NASA.

The Scitech Board were delighted to welcome partners and special guests to the Scitech Discovery Centre on Monday evening to celebrate National Science Week. The event offered the opportunity for networking and to enjoy trying out some of the exhibits in our Human Potential feature exhibition as well as have a go at some pop-up science demonstrations. The evening featured a fascinating panel discussion led by Scitech CEO John Chappell, with guest panellists Dr Natasha Teakle, John Barrington AM and Professor kLITI Grice providing insight into their amazing research and work in their respective fields. Thank you to everyone who attended and made it such a great night for celebrating science and championing the incredible work done by Western Australian scientists and innovators.

🚀 The space debris has landed at Scitech! We are so excited to give visitors an opportunity to get up close to a real piece of a rocket that has been to space and back. This object was a mystery when it washed up on a beach at Green Head 250km north of Perth last year, before it was investigated by the Australian Space Agency and discovered to be a fuel tank from a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation to primarily launch satellites into orbit. It’s been an amazing cross-team collaboration to get the exhibit ready in time for National Science Week. This included transporting the space debris down to Perth, removing about 500kg of sand from the interior and consulting with the Western Australian Museum’s Collections Management team to get it ready for display. The Scitech design and workshop teams worked together to develop and construct the exhibit including an early morning operation to carefully bring the object into the planetarium foyer and delivering bags of sand to recreate the beach scenery. Our digital content and graphics teams worked with our science communicators to tell the journey it took from being up in space to falling several hundred kilometres into the Indian Ocean and eventually landing in Western Australia. You can now visit our new space debris exhibit in the Scitech Planetarium foyer!

This week we are celebrating National Science Week!✨ This is a time to champion and celebrate science, an opportunity to acknowledge the amazing research and work done by Australian scientists and to encourage Australians of all ages to be fascinated by the world we live in through science. We feel privileged at Scitech to be able to do this every day, and to provide Western Australians with an experience of science that is fun, exciting and sparks curiosity. Scitech Delivery General Manager Craig Bloxsome talks about the importance of informal science learning opportunities like those provided by Scitech and National Science Week in today's The West Australian: https://bit.ly/3M0crtf