Science Alive is back, but not as we used to know it
Saturday, 10 May 2025
What happened to the much-loved Science Alive? TINA LAW finds out how the people behind the not-for-profit organisation plan to inspire a new generation of Christchurch kids.
A generation of Christchurch kids are likely to have memories of Science Alive - whether it is the recurring trauma of the sweat-inducing vertical slide or watching your hair spike while touching the Van de Graaff generator.
But equally, another generation have missed out on the joy and educational benefits of having a science centre on their doorstep.
For 20 years Science Alive operated from the former railway station building on Moorhouse Ave, but the February 2011 earthquake caused irreparable damage to the building and it was later demolished.
It pivoted quickly after the quakes, setting up new premises while staff took science to the people.
Plans for a new multimillion-dollar science centre eventually fell over, and staff were made redundant.
The trust behind Science Alive developed a new website for teachers and is now ramping up its operation. It has employed staff and is getting back into community.
Does that mean Christchurch will see the return of a new dedicated science centre? Probably not, according to board trustee Claire Turner.
She said the trust has no plans to open a science centre, but is looking at partnerships to develop places people can visit.
Turner would not give more details, saying it was “commercially sensitive”. She cautioned these things take time.
The trust would love to create another science centre, but financially it is not feasible, Turner said.
“We can’t afford to do it. It’s a very different world to what it was in 1990.”
Even the old centre was financially tough to operate, and if they had built a new centre after the earthquakes, Turner doubted it would have been sustainable.
The journey so far
The organisation went through considerable turmoil in the years following the earthquakes. Staff relocated to a building in Sydenham and they pivoted to design and develop exhibits for science centres in other countries.
It also took its programmes out to the community, into schools and to public places like libraries, winning an international award for visitor experience - quite a feat considering it had no science centre.
The chief executive at the time, Neville Petrie, described the operation as a “science centre without any walls”.
At the same time, the trust was still focused on building those walls back.
Soon after the quakes, planning started on a new world-class multimillion-dollar centre complete with a full dome 3D theatre, a quake gallery, teaching labs, research exhibits, a function room and a challenge centre.
In 2016, it purchased the former Law Courts building on Durham St North from Ngāi Tahu Property. It planned to develop most of the building into a science centre and lease out the rest.
The project was expected to cost $50 million and the trust board already had $40m in reserves and insurance proceeds. It planned to raise another $10m.
The trust paid $25m for the building and the remaining $25m would be spent on the centre, it was reported at the time.
But, in late 2017, problems started to arise.
The trust announced it had slashed the budget for the centre to about $5m and the floor space was cut by two thirds, from 5500sqm to 1500sqm. It hoped to sell part of the site.
The original proposal was too big for Christchurch and not “economically viable”, Science Alive said at the time.
Three months later, in February 2018 seven staff were made redundant, leaving just one staff member. It stopped its education programmes and planned to stage the development.
Later that year, board chairperson Professor Phil Butler announced the trust was abandoning plans for the Law Courts and looking for another location.
Butler, who is still a trustee, blamed the development failure on a tough leasing market, and rebuild delays nearby.
The trust sold the court building and never found another location.
It appears it took a financial hit. The latest financial statements filed with Charities Services show at December 31, 2023, the trust had about $11.5m in investments, much less than the $40m in investments and insurance proceeds it had in 2016.
The money might not be enough to build a new science centre, but it is enough to fund Science Alive’s recent resurgence.
New direction
There is a new chief executive on board, Lauren Pugh, and new employees ready to deliver the trust’s vision.
Pugh, a trained teacher, is excited about the future of the charity, and is leading its new direction. She is joined by three other full-time staff and two part-timers.
After Covid, Science Alive developed a free online education portal to empower teachers to teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) subjects.
The website was launched in June last year and more than 1000 teachers are using it. An online store has also been launched selling STEAM products vetted by scientists and educators. The proceeds from the store help keep the website free to use.
Over the past 12 months, the organisation has spent a lot of time figuring out who it is, who it serves and what its identity is now, Pugh said.
The organisation has been around a long time, but Pugh said Christchurch might have forgotten what it does. It is her job to inspire a new generation to explore science.
A new buzz wire game created for a Children’s Day event earlier this yearproved hugely popular.
“We had a queue of kids for five hours. It’s amazing to see how excited families were to re-engage with Science Alive. It was awesome.
“It’s really nice to have conversations with the public again.”
Turner says people always bring up the vertical slide when they talk about Science Alive.
The slide no longer exists, but both Pugh and Turner suggest maybe it could be rebuilt and transported on the back of a truck.
“We want to make sure we are bringing back those memories for Christchurch,” Pugh said.
The outreach programme in schools is ramping up and Pugh said they are keen to go to as many schools as possible.
“It’s exciting to move back into that space.”
She also hinted at exciting new physical developments and when asked if she was talking about a new science centre, Pugh cryptically said, not as it was. Like Turner, she cited commercial sensitivity.
The landscape in the sector is about survival, especially as the Government had moved away from funding science and technology initiatives, Pugh said, so it is imperative the new strategy ensured longevity.
So instead of a science centre it is more likely to look at developing exhibits and interactive displays it can take to the people.
For some schools, the cost of getting to a science centre is a barrier, so by visiting schools, it could end up engaging with more children, Pugh said.
Turner reiterates that point. She said Science Alive is trying to reach as many children as possible and if it put all its funds into a science centre, it would reach only a portion of kids lucky enough to have people to take them and to pay for it.
“You’re still only reaching a certain demographic.”
The trust wants to reach the kids whose parents have never said to them “have you thought about being an engineer?”.
Turner said she is proud Science Alive still exists and that is down to the hard work of trustees.
They will continue that work to keep inspiring the next generation of children to take an interest in science and technology, centre or no centre.