Scitech

Scitech Discovery Centre

The Scitech Discovery Centre features a number of regularly changing, interactive exhibitions designed to inform and educate visitors on subjects concerning science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It also offers live science, puppet and planetarium shows presented by enthusiastic science communications staff.

Large feature exhibitions are rotated every six months, with STEM exhibits pertaining to a particular theme, storyline or concept, most of which are built in-house by Scitech's design, graphics, and workshop departments. Scitech was the first Australian science centre to build large-scale interactive exhibitions. In addition, the exhibitions Scitech creates have toured nationally to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin. Internationally, exhibitions have toured to Singapore, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Finland, France, England, Portugal, Estonia, Norway, Kuwait, and North American venues.

Approximately 3 million people have visited Scitech since its opening in 1988. 300,000 general public visitors and 42,000 primary and secondary school children visit the Scitech Discovery Centre annually at its West Perth base, with another 200,000 people experiencing Scitech via its travelling roadshow known as Statewide.

Scitech areas

Staff

The floor staff that most visitors will interact with at Scitech in West Perth fall into two categories.

There is also an extensive "behind-the-scenes" operations and support team. This team comprises creative design, electronics, mechanical workshop, operations and maintenance, logistics and purchasing, IT services, graphic and multimedia design, communications and marketing and travelling exhibition support.

Funding

Funding for Scitech's programs and services comes from grants from government, corporate sponsorship, rental of travelling exhibitions, admission and membership fees, and other supporting services. Roughly 50% of funding comes from the Western Australian state government. Sponsors include Lotterywest, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Rio Tinto, Woodside, Chevron and CSIRO.

Scitech Planetarium

In 2004, Scitech leased the empty Omni Max Theatre and rebranded it as "Horizon – The Planetarium" with a substantial refit. Entrance to the planetarium was not included in the ticket price for Scitech and separate tickets were needed. This was dropped a few years later.

The 70mm IMAX projector, platter system and associated Spitz spherical star map system were removed in 2004, and kept in storage. Sky-Skan were chosen to carry out the upgrades to the Planetarium by installing 6 Barco 909 projectors for high quality astronomy, full-dome shows and also for the live element of each presentation. The presenter would be based at the front of the planetarium and have full control over real-time astronomy visualisations.

In September 2013, the planetarium was closed for a $1.4m renovation that was funded by a grant from LotteryWest. New projectors, servers, lighting, wiring and various communications devices were included in the upgrade.

The Scitech Planetarium has a diameter of 18 m (59 ft) and still remains the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. It has two Sony TX–T420 projectors using ultra-wide angle lenses designed specifically for Scitech. These projectors fill the full 180 degrees of the night sky in 4K 60fps detail. The Scitech Planetarium is one of only a few remaining planetaria still using an azimuth speaker channel for ceiling effects and has an 8.4KW sound system using 6.1 surround sound.

The planetarium is popular with passing tourists, members of the public, private events and school groups ranging from pre-primary up to grade 12. It has approximately 135,000 visitors a year.

Scitech Statewide

Scitech's Statewide department is the travelling arm of the organisation that takes Scitech's educational early childhood, science, technology and careers programs to over 200,000 people across Western Australia. In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, Scitech Statewide visited 154 communities across Western Australia

Scitech professional development

Scitech’s professional learning team are experienced teachers in STEM fields who model the latest in pedagogy and provide support to teachers with interactive workshops and classroom collaboration. Working across Western Australia they also host events that feature teaching practices and exemplary teachers. The team offers a range of interactive workshops in science, design technology, coding, robotics, maths, and the integrated curriculum. Their workshops are flexible to suit the needs of any group, and may be recognised as professional learning with the Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia.

Received

Sponsored

Tourism

Memberships

Scitech is a member of these associations of science centers:

Expansion and Relocation

The Scitech Discovery Centre has remained in its current location of City West for 29 years. The centre is currently undergoing a major expansion with the majority of the administration staff moving to another building 400 metres away. The now-vacant areas are undergoing a redevelopment with a larger floor space area for exhibits, a new ‘rest and reflect’ area with a direct view of the Perth CBD skyline, a new CSIRO Lab, new exhibit area and a new Science Theatre.

An announcement was made in August 2016 confirming that Scitech will be moving to the Perth Cultural Centre in 2021, along with a newly-built Perth Museum.