House of Science founder Chris Duggan demonstrates a resource kit in 2023. Video / Bay of Plenty Times
Living in Holland for the first 12 years of her life gave Chris Duggan a “good foundation” in science.
She said she was really privileged, and when she moved to New Zealand in 1979, she was shocked to notice her peers were not at the same level as her inscience education.
Now Duggan is being recognised for her transformative impact on science education in the King’s Birthday Honours, as she is made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
She became a science teacher in 1998, spending 15 years teaching biology and chemistry. She became the head of science at Tauranga Girls’ College in 2006 and held the position for seven years.
“Throughout my time in the classroom, I saw many students come to high school with very little understanding or confidence in science,” Duggan said.
In 2012, an Education Review Office report found 73% of New Zealand’s primary schools were not doing science very well, she said.
“I was quite horrified and decided something needed to be done.”
She quit her job and set up the not-for-profit organisation House of Science in 2014, with the mission to ensure science education was accessible, engaging and effective for primary school students.
After quitting her teaching job, Duggan spent a few months doing market research and visiting primary school principals to better understand the issue at hand.
“I realised that the two biggest barriers to getting quality science into our primary schools were the lack of teacher confidence and the lack of resources.
“We are a charity that delivers science resource kits to primary schools all over New Zealand and the kits allow teachers in our primary schools to deliver hands-on science lessons.”
She created the kits in fish bins full of all the equipment needed and instructions.
Chris Duggan quit her teaching job and set up the not-for-profit organisation House of Science in 2014. Photo / Brydie Thompson
She set up what she called a “library system” where teachers could select one of 43 different resource kits to borrow for two weeks.
An example is the “Moo to You” kit, which is all about dairy science.
“Students will grow some pasture in little trays, and they make silage, and they explore the digestive system of cows versus humans and look at different milks.”
It will arrive at their doorstep, and the teacher will have two weeks to do all the experiments before the kit is returned and topped up for the next teacher.
Chris Duggan's House of Science provides kits to hundreds of schools around New Zealand. Photo / File
Duggan lived in Tauranga from 2006 to 2022, before moving to Ātiamuri, south of Rotorua. She still often commuted to work in the Tauranga office in Judea.
“It all started in the Western Bay and has turned into a semi-national initiative now. We’re in a third of all [primary] schools in the country.
