Chris Duggan has been recognised for her hard work and perseverance in bringing her charity, House of Science NZ, to where it is today.

The House of Science CEO was presented with the Wintec Secondary School Teacher/Educator award in September.

Chris graduated from Massey University with a degree in biochemistry and spent her early working years in different labs before taking a position as a lab technician at Kawerau College.

'When the school needed another science teacher, it was apparent that I was well-qualified to teach and I moved into a teaching role, training on the job,” she says.

Her next move was to Tauranga Girls' College, as Head of Science and teaching general science and chemistry.

'I saw wave after wave of students who were starting high school with no experience of science and that was a real concern.”

A 2012 Education Review Office report shows that 73 per cent of primary schools seen were doing no science at all.

Chris was horrified by this, as New Zealand prides itself on being a developed country.

Chris Duggan, the face behind the idea of House of Science. Photo: Supplied.

She says 'we aren't feeding the curiosity for science in our primary school students and fostering their wondering”.

She points out that this has a knock on effect on the continuation of expert scientific knowledge within the country and growing the future workforce.

'By the age of 10, many children have decided what subjects they enjoy and what they might like to do in life.

'If they've had no exposure to science, then that won't be in the mix. Research shows that by 13/14 years old, the boat for introducing them to new subjects has been missed.”

In 2013, Chris quit her teaching job mid-year and set about making a huge change to the teaching of science in our primary schools.

'While it sounds like a dramatic move to quit my job, I knew that if I was going to do this, I needed to devote the time to it and do it properly.”

Chris approached Tauranga Primary School principals to identify what was required and discovered the teachers had neither the expertise nor the resources available to them to teach science effectively.

From there she devised a system of science kits that could be lent out to schools from a central library, containing all the equipment, materials and instructions for using them in the classroom, and the House of Science was born.

Chris wanted to focus on resources to give teachers confidence to teach science as science is an inherently expensive subject to resource.

Children benefit hugely from looking at the world through a scientific lens. Photo: Supplied.

House of Science offers schools access to really good resources without having to purchase them themselves.

'This all needed funding and I knew nothing about setting up a charity or getting funding. So initially it was just me learning on the job and applying for grants. I have been very fortunate to come across some very generous philanthropists and numerous volunteers.

'The Wright Family Foundation are cornerstone partners and their funding has enabled me to expand the House of Science beyond the Bay of Plenty area.”

Some kits have local sponsors to fund their maintenance and distribution and their branding is on the kit.

DairyNZ sponsors several kits that relate to their industry under the project name Moo to You, and government departments such as MPI's Biosecurity team are also involved.

All House of Science resources are now bi-lingual and available in Te Reo Māori and English.

'For me that is a no-brainer, we are a bi-lingual country and I believe that every teaching resource should be bi-lingual.”

The House of Science is now running in 18 other regions, each with a manager and teams of volunteers.

Chris has seen a huge shift in teacher confidence, which for her is the bottom line.

'As far as the primary school students are concerned, we are certainly building capacity in the community to look at the world through scientific lenses.”

Winning the Wintec award means a lot to Chris but she is quick to acknowledge the team of 40 staff and 100 or so volunteers in the success of House of Science.

Growing the country's future workforce with science. Photo: Supplied.

'It's been a huge team effort with the help of our funders and the award has certainly raised our profile, which is a good thing!”

Chris believes that our teachers deserve better and need access to these resources. Her next goal in The House of Science journey is to secure long term and sustainable funding for science resources in New Zealand schools.

'Our vision is to build scientific literate children, young people and communities, not just to get them into scientific career paths but so they look at the world through scientific lenses and make informed decisions about the welfare of themselves, their communities and the planet.”

ANZ sponsored House of Science kits ready to go out to schools. Photo: Supplied.