Partnering with Tūhura Otago Museum - Annual Report 2024

1 July, 2025

Direct MacDiarmid Institute outreach activities through Tūhura Otago Museum in 2024:

Activity	Numbers reached
School visits	395
Workshops	30
Total	425

MacDiarmid Institute content present in the Tūhura Otago Museum’s wider outreach activities in 2024:

Activity	Numbers reached
Tūhura Tuarangi - Aotearoa in Space showcase	2,438
Showcase of Showcases event at Parliament	250
Cleantech event at Parliament	50
Total	2,738

Left to right: Nanoscience setup at Ōpoho School; some of the activities for the nanoscience session.

Climate change outreach at Wakari School

Developing a generation with the knowledge needed to take on the sustainability challenges of the future.

Tūhura Otago Museum’s science engagement team spent several days at Wakari School delivering a climate change outreach programme to the entire school to help the school launch a participatory science project to reduce its carbon footprint and to work towards becoming a net zero school.

Activities from the 'What Can We Do?' module being used during a climate change outreach session at Wakari School

The team adapted content from 'Far from Frozen' and MacDiarmid Institute-themed 'What Can We Do?' content for all age groups; students learned about what causes climate change, the research being done to mitigate it and what individual actions they can take to reduce their impact on the environment. With the focus on building climate resilience through mitigation and adaptation technologies being developed here in Aotearoa, the sessions left the students feeling empowered to enact change and excited to begin their science project.

'Showcase of Showcases' event at Parliament

Dr Craig Grant (former Director, Visitor Experience and Science Engagement at Tūhura Otago Museum) coordinated the installation of many of the Museum's science showcases in Parliament's Banquet Hall on 21st May, and outside on the forecourt 22nd and 23rd May.

From left: '100 women, 100 words...' on display at Parliament; 'Far from Frozen II: Going to Extremes' in the Banquet Hall.

The Museum team brought 'Far From Frozen II: Going to Extremes' to Parliament, which included the MacDiarmid Institute-focused 'What Can We Do?' module. The team also displayed the '100 women, 100 words...' slideshow, which features several women associated with the MacDiarmid Institute.

Lab in a Box on Parliament's forecourt

Adding MacDiarmid Institute-related content to the 'Tūhura Tuarangi: Aotearoa in Space' showcase

One of Tūhura Otago Museum's most popular science showcases, 'Tūhura Tuarangi: Aotearoa in Space', includes an interactive that uses electrolysis to generate green hydrogen (an area of research underway at the MacDiarmid Institute).

Hydrogen kits for outreach

Tūhura Otago Museum and the Institute have co-purchased a Horizon DIY Fuel Cell Science Classroom Pack to use for MacDiarmid Institute-related outreach and education purposes. The cost of the kit was split with Silver Science, a Museum Unlocking Curious Minds project that uses interactive, hands-on workshops to engage with people who are over 65. Although this over 65 age group is not the Museum's usual target audience, Silver Science aims to close the generation gap that currently exists on complex, multi-disciplinary issues like climate change.

Silver Science attendees assembling their own hydrogen fuel cell

The project uses workshops to engage grandparents and kaumatua in STEM activities to empower them with new knowledge and help them set positive examples for younger generations. Reactions to the hydrogen fuel cell kit have been overwhelmingly positive so far, and Senior Science Engagement Coordinator Marijn Kouwenhoven is working on developing more outreach content that incorporates the kit.