Scotland’s Science Centres
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S3M-7630, in the name of Joe FitzPatrick, on Scotland’s science centres. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates what it sees as the excellent work of Scotland’s science centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen; welcomes in particular the official launch of the Dundee Science Centre Science Learning Institute in support of the Curriculum for Excellence and lifelong learning, through which the science centre has formed what is considered a unique partnership with the University of Dundee and Dundee College; considers that this initiative, which will offer interprofessional science communication training for cross-sector audiences, will bring more science to the people of Tayside, promoting public engagement with scientific research and discovery and supporting science-sector skills development, and wishes all four centres and their partners every success in such ventures in the future.
17:03
I welcome the guests in the public gallery who have joined us from Scotland’s science centres: Our Dynamic Earth, which is just across the road, the Glasgow Science Centre, Satrosphere in Aberdeen and Sensation, in my home town of Dundee. Our guests represent the boards and staff of the centres, who are committed to providing learning opportunities for our communities. I hope that they will find the debate interesting.
In Scotland we are lucky to have four permanent hubs, which are dedicated to furthering engagement with and enthusiasm for science among people of all ages and in all sectors. Our science centres play an increasingly important role in Scotland. They are no longer just a day out; they are part of the curriculum for excellence, they are inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and they provide support for teachers, trainee teachers, pupils and professional scientists.
In the limited time that I have, I will concentrate on the work of the Sensation science centre in Dundee. I am sure that members who have better local knowledge of the other three centres will update us on the good work that is going on there.
Sensation has been open since 2000 and its interactive exhibitions—which focus on the life sciences and, in particular, the senses—attracted 60,000 visitors last year. Dundee is a global hub for life science research and collaborations with the college of life sciences at the University of Dundee ensure that exhibits pique the interest of tomorrow’s researchers.
Getting young people excited about and interested in science is one of Sensation’s key roles. As part of that ambition, the centre will hold a meet-the-scientists event on 25 and 26 February. It will involve scientists from the University of Abertay Dundee and the University of Dundee explaining research processes and their latest discoveries to school-age children. Topics will range from breeding potatoes and how to make the perfect chip, to dentistry and psychology. The event will focus on the exciting aspects of scientific discovery.
The science centres aim to educate not only children; there is something for all ages. Tonight, Sensation holds a free speed-dating event as part of its reclaim series. Those who attend will chat over the glow of the Bunsen burner and perform scientific experiments while meeting new friends.
That is one example of how our science centres are constantly evolving and are committed to engaging the whole community with science. However, Dundee is taking that even further with the science learning institute run by Sensation, which is the first of its kind in Scotland.
The Dundee Science Centre science learning institute was launched in September last year as a collaborative approach to providing support and development for the many professionals who engage with learners throughout the community. The aim of the programme is to create a culture of curiosity, confidence and engagement with scientists within and across communities. In collaboration with the University of Dundee school of education, social work and community education and with Dundee College, the institute provides high-quality and interprofessional training for practising teachers and those in further and higher education, as well as research scientists, museum educators and community educators.
So far, some 200 adults have taken part in the various programmes that are on offer. Two teachers in residence have completed six-month placements and, working with science centre staff and university scientists, developed loan boxes and support materials to take back to the classroom, thereby ensuring that Tayside pupils have access to cutting-edge curriculum for excellence resources. The aim is that, by June, more than 300 adults will have taken part in the programmes.
I thank the Scottish Government for its support for Dundee Science Centre and all Scotland’s science centres. Its support and encouragement are vital to our centres’ continued success. I am pleased that Angela Constance will respond to the debate, but I put on record my thanks to Mike Russell, in particular, who has been a staunch supporter of all four science centres.
We come to the open debate, which will be speeches of four minutes. Perhaps one or two members who thought they were going to speak have not yet pressed their request-to-speak buttons. It would help them to do so.
17:09
I congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on providing us with the opportunity to discuss science. Science is often thought of as a minority interest, but almost everybody depends on and engages in it. It is important that we acknowledge the role that the science centres—in my case, Satrosphere in the north-east of Scotland—play in bringing science to people’s attention.
Curiosity, which Joe FitzPatrick highlighted, is something that I retain. A day when I do not learn something new, however quirky or unusual it is, is an unusual day. I suspect that all members present have a similar attitude.
The gateways in our major cities can spark a lifetime’s interest in scientific discovery. It might start with a wee boy watching the development of a tadpole in a jam jar in the kitchen and go on to that person making major scientific advances, which many Scots have done in their contributions to the world.
However, it is matter of concern that knowledge of what our science centres can do is declining. I hope that tonight’s debate is an opportunity to spread the word and to increase the number of adults who are aware of science centres and, hence, are more likely to take their children along.
In Aberdeen, the Satrosphere has had a hugely positive impact since it opened in 1988. It has some 50 interactive exhibits and it has helped schoolchildren—and accompanying adults, I guess—in the north-east into pursuing careers in science. It has also developed an important partnership with my former university, the University of Aberdeen. Aberdeen is famous in mathematics—my particular subject—and in a wide range of engineering and scientific endeavours. It is vital that we generate interest in science and discovery among young people, and I am sure that science centres can play a very important part in that.
There have been a number of joint initiatives between Aberdeen university and Aberdeen College on the back of the partnership initiative. Aberdeen College’s planetarium will, after almost a decade, reopen in the coming months and a new discovery dinner hour will be launched to bring university researchers together with the public in a themed social event in the college’s training restaurant. Those initiatives, together with the Aberdeen public engagement partnership, are exactly the sort of things for which our science centres can be very much a focal point.
MSPs have one of the centres on our doorstep, just across the park. We regularly visit it as MSPs, but we go there, have our meetings and leave. Next time we go to our local science centre, we should ensure that we look at what is on offer and try to learn something. We can then proselytise to the youngsters and their parents in our respective areas.
I very much support the work of the science centres, and I commend their activities to every member in the chamber.
17:13
I congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on bringing the debate to the chamber, and I welcome the visitors to the gallery—among whom I see one of my former colleagues from the Open University.
Sensation is one of the four science centres in Scotland. As Joe FitzPatrick said, it was opened in 2000, and it is a very important visitor attraction in Dundee, which is a city that also includes HMS Discovery and Verdant Works. As Sensation’s mission statement notes, it is a community resource that fosters engagement with science and the city’s science research community, as it has links with the two local universities. Along with its sister centres in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh—as Stewart Stevenson said, we all know Our Dynamic Earth as a meeting place for us—it is a member of the Scottish science centres network, which was formed in 2000 to promote greater collaboration and networking between the four centres.
The centres were formally inspected by HM Inspectorate of Education, which reported in June 2007. The follow-up report, which came out in November 2009, highlights many examples of good practice and collaborative working in the delivery of the core functions of the science centres. The centres were found to have developed very effective partnership working with local and national agencies to deliver an extensive range of continuous professional development activities for primary and secondary teachers, including residential courses for more than 170 primary teachers. Primary teachers who do not have a background in science may lack confidence in their ability to teach science subjects at the later stages of primary school. The type of activities that go on in the science centres have enabled teachers to feel a lot more confident about their ability to teach science and to implement curriculum for excellence, largely because of their improved understanding.
School pupils are, of course, involved in programmes in the centres, too. They are able to get involved in science activity and, as Joe FitzPatrick said, to observe scientists at work. They are also able to find out more about different scientific disciplines, which enables them to make choices about the science subjects that they might want to follow later in their careers.
The science centres also perform outreach work with local authorities, and they involve pre-school pupils: both Dundee and Glasgow have offered early explorers programmes for the three-to-five age group. Very young children are able to take part in learning and fun activities that are based around science, and they get the opportunity to explore the exhibitions.
The 2009 report did, however, identify that there was less engagement with secondary schools. At that stage, there seemed to be more difficulty in matching the curriculum in secondary schools with the activities of the science centres. However, the situation may be improved as the curriculum for excellence beds in and the type of activities that are available in the science centres may be better aligned with the secondary curriculum in the future.
Joe FitzPatrick talked about speed-dating events at the science centres. I did not know about those; however, one of the science centres offers sleepovers for family and uniformed groups. I hope that they are not anything to do with the speed-dating events and that those are totally separate.
We have seconded teachers who are working in the science centres to develop materials for teachers and pupils, which ensures that the materials are consistent with the curriculum for excellence. Work placements are also used to prepare resources for teachers that support the curriculum for excellence.
Joe FitzPatrick welcomed the investment by the current Government in the four science centres. I also welcome the investment that took place before the current Government took office. The previous Scottish Executive also invested in the science centres and recognised the contribution that they were able to make to education. In 2005-06, the investment in the four science centres was less than 0.5 per cent of the overall public expenditure on science in Scotland. That was extremely good value for money, and the current investment is also good value for money.
17:16
I, too, congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on securing the debate. As colleagues will be aware, none of the remaining four science centres is based in Ayrshire, never mind Kilmarnock and Loudoun, but that does not mean that the debate does not affect my constituents. I will take the opportunity to highlight the issue of science engagement in communities and the part that the centres can play in supporting that.
Over recent years, I have highlighted the alarmingly low level of public engagement with science in Ayrshire. In October, I hosted a science summit with the assistance of Kilmarnock College, which attracted more than 100 participants not just to discuss the local situation, but to hear first hand from a range of Scottish and UK organisations with an interest in science engagement. In arranging that summit, I enjoyed tremendous support from Glasgow Science Centre and its then chief executive, Kirk Ramsay. In one of those strange coincidences that we find in Scotland, it emerged that Mr Ramsay was a former student of Kilmarnock College. As an engineer, he is also an admirer of the work of the Rev Robert Stirling of Galston, whose innovative approach to power generation is, after nearly 200 years, re-emerging as having major potential in near-zero-carbon power generation. Not only did Mr Ramsay and his staff support the event whole-heartedly, but the Glasgow Science Centre proved to be a unique resource, not just because of its own activities, but because it plays host to a range of outreach activities. In particular, it acts as an extremely effective base from which the British Science Association is able to provide invaluable support and information for those of us who have an interest in science engagement, but who are unfamiliar with the wide array of organisations that are active in the field.
It became clear, through the summit process, that although there is too low a level of science engagement in the wider community, there is still no lack of enthusiasm and commitment. That includes the many excellent science teachers in our secondary schools and colleges, and the highly motivated primary school teachers who inspire an interest in science and in the wider science, technology, engineering and mathematics—STEM—agenda subjects. That is something on which we are starting to build, with a number of local schools obtaining science engagement funding since the summit took place. I look forward to taking that work further.
I see that aspect of outreach by the centres as being important because, in return for their national funding, the centres must be able to demonstrate benefit for all sectors of the community, not just those who are lucky enough to have a centre within easy reach. From recent work that was done by Market Research UK Ltd on behalf of the Scottish Government, it is clear that outside school visits, direct engagement with the centres is heavily skewed towards higher-income households. The centres must use their work with schools as a means of broadening awareness of what they offer, not just to support the curriculum for excellence, which is very important, but to encourage regular and lifelong engagement with science.
As a computer science graduate with a software development focus, I am concerned to hear that interest in that important and vital area is diminishing. Scotland has an excellent reputation in software development and I very much hope that the science centres will also consider ways in which to influence that situation in the near future.
The Glasgow Science Centre is a very important resource for my constituents, especially young people who want to explore a range of issues and experiences to guide their choices of career. I will certainly do what I can to ensure that we develop engagement with the centre in the years ahead.
17:20
I congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on bringing to Parliament’s attention the exciting development of Scotland’s four science centres. I am pleased that he focused much of his speech on the work that is being done in Dundee, as that allows me to concentrate on Aberdeen’s science centre, Satrosphere, which has gone from strength to strength in the past few years. I must declare an interest at this point, as my husband is currently a director of Satrosphere, as an Aberdeen city councillor.
I remember the embryonic Satrosphere back in the early 1990s. It was set up through the vision of Dr Lesley Glasser of the University of Aberdeen, who wanted younger generations of Aberdonians to experience the thrill of scientific discovery at first hand. The group of extremely dedicated volunteers who ran the small organisation struggled for years to find suitable premises but refused to give up and eventually found a permanent home for the centre in the old tram sheds near the beach in Aberdeen. I was delighted to hear from our visitors this afternoon that Dr Glasser is still a board member.
Satrosphere nearly went under a few years back, after a spell of poor management, but I am delighted that it has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, and that, working in partnership with other organisations, particularly the University of Aberdeen, and with experienced representatives of the Dundee centre, it is making rapid progress in bringing the excitement of science to many people, young and old alike, in Aberdeen and beyond, and is now close to being financially profitable.
To do justice to the university’s summary of the work that is currently being undertaken by Satrosphere would take much longer than the four minutes that have been allocated to me. Suffice it to say that the partnership between the university and Satrosphere has led to a constantly evolving programme that is attracting growing numbers of people to the centre and has resulted in the achievement of its most positive HMIE inspection report in years. Satrosphere now provides an extensive quality education programme, which has gained extremely positive feedback from teachers and pupils. The programme has been produced in close collaboration with the university’s school of education, whose staff have been heavily involved in creating Scotland’s curriculum for excellence.
The University of Aberdeen’s public engagement with science strategy has led the way in Scotland and has resulted in the establishment of the UK’s largest and most diverse community cafe science programme, which attracts nearly 4,000 visitors a year and hosts unique medical, rural and topical evening events. Hundreds of researchers who are prominent in their fields now interact with the public and schools throughout the year. For example, last year alone, the university’s natural history centre engaged with more than 17,000 pupils, parents and members of the public.
The public engagement with science strategy has led to an invitation to the first world conference on science festivals and cafes, which is to be held this month in Washington DC, to present the Aberdeen public and schools engagement model as an exemplar to the audience there.
The reputation of that engagement effort has strongly influenced the decision of the British Science Association to bring the British science festival—the biggest festival of its kind in Europe—to Scotland next year, with the University of Aberdeen as its host, and an expected attendance of around 50,000 people.
Techfest, which was the brainchild of my late council colleague Bob Rae, is now the largest and longest-established science festival outside Edinburgh, and annually draws in more than 25,000 people, with a programme that includes school workshops and is linked directly to the curriculum for excellence. For the past three years, the festival has gone on a tour of Highland schools, reaching a further 3,000 secondary school pupils.
Time prevents me from going on, but I hope that I have given a flavour of the important work that is being done by Satrosphere and its partners, thanks to its very committed staff, whose enthusiasm drives the organisation forward and who deserve our high commendation. I hope that in the current funding round, when money is undoubtedly tight, the chief scientist will look favourably on Satrosphere and give it the little boost that will ensure its success into the future.
I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning is well aware of the strengths of Aberdeen’s science centre, and I hope that the minister will endorse its valuable work in her response to this debate.
17:24
I thank Joe FitzPatrick for securing this debate. As everyone else has said, science centres are fantastic. All the science centres that have been mentioned—Dundee Science Centre, Our Dynamic Earth, Satrosphere in Aberdeen and the Glasgow Science Centre—do a wonderful job of not only ensuring that science is available to school children, the general public and tourists but making science interesting and fun. That encourages young people, in particular, to attend classes in the science centre.
As Willie Coffey said, Glasgow Science Centre does outreach work, and I know that other science centres do the same. Many a time I have wandered through George Square when Glasgow Science Centre has been doing outreach work and it has been queued out with young people wanting to see the experiments. That is an important part of the work that science centres do. The staff show great enthusiasm when the schoolkids and others come along. Given such enthusiasm, I hope that the young people who visit Glasgow Science Centre—some are from schools, and some are so young that they are from nurseries—will look upon science as a career.
Pupils and teachers who recently travelled to Geneva to visit CERN—the European Organization for Nuclear Research—to see top scientists in action said that they found it very rewarding. I mention, in particular, a pupil, Alison Tully, and Clare Hayes, the head of the faculty of science at Hyndland secondary school in Glasgow, who were fortunate enough to attend CERN along with eight other pupils and Mike Russell, who thought that it was a fantastic opportunity for them. Alison is now going to go on to study physics at university. That tells us something about the joy that they got from not only the science centre but the outreach work that science centres do. I also praise Mike Russell, who has been very good at pushing science forward.
I have often visited Glasgow Science Centre with my family and friends, and I have to concur with everything that Willie Coffey says. The centre offers a unique experience and is very welcoming. He is very knowledgeable on the subject, and will know that Glasgow Science Centre works closely with Ayrshire. Indeed, Glasgow’s £50,000 share of the science centre transport fund has a caveat that 50 per cent of it must go to Ayrshire to ensure that people from that area are brought into Glasgow Science Centre. The caveat also states that some of the rest of the fund has to go to deprived areas. Willie Coffey is right that it is important that everyone gets the opportunity to visit the science centre. It cannot just be for people with money; everyone must be able to get involved. I believe that the transport fund may be increased to £80,000 now that the budget has been passed. I look forward to the minister confirming that—perhaps not today but later. Every school-age child should be able to visit a science centre, so I urge all local authorities, science centres and the Government to get together to ensure that every school-age child has a chance to do so.
I will raise a couple of issues with the minister and perhaps she can get back to me on them. This is not the case at the other science centres, but Glasgow Science Centre has responsibility for the cost of the quay walls in the Clyde and for opening up the Millennium bridge. Whenever a boat needs to go under it, the science centre is called and has to open it up. Those anomalies have existed for a number of years, and I would like someone to have a look at them. I raised the issue with the previous Government and have done so with the current Government. I spoke to the people from Glasgow Science Centre today and those two anomalies, which cost time and money, still exist.
I do not want to end on a negative note, because the science centres do a fantastic job—
I think that you may have to, actually.
Okay, I will wind-up on that note.
17:28
I thank Joe FitzPatrick for securing the debate. The motion is thoroughly worth while and the timing is excellent. The background to what we are all saying is that, sadly, the position of science and the teaching of science has declined in the national consciousness over the years. The science centres are about reversing that decline.
If I think back to where science stood in the 1960s—I am old enough to do so—I recall that it was the way that many pupils at school wanted to go. It was glamorous to be seen in a white coat and to be at the cutting edge. That explains the success of television programmes such as “Tomorrow’s World” but, as the decades went by, the situation changed to the point where, sadly, some of our best science graduates are not going into science today. The other day, I met someone who had a first-class honours degree in chemistry but is a fund manager. I am bound to say that there is something slightly wrong with that. I am not against people going into finance, but why do we not use our best scientific brains where they could be used?
As ever, my speech will be about my constituency. Sandra White mentioned CERN. In a similar fashion, the scientists who over the years came to the north of Scotland to work at Dounreay in Caithness produced a centre of excellence and knowledge of international quality. On the back of the people who are based at Dounreay, the teaching of science in high schools in Thurso and Wick has prospered and the number of science-oriented societies for the public has grown. That is my first point—they are still there.
My next point is based on the schools. We have seen good work in the development of a Caithness science festival. I pay tribute to Professor Iain Baikie, who has gone a long way to promoting the teaching of science. Joe FitzPatrick, in his excellent speech, talked about the interest of young people in science, which takes us back to what I might call the look-and-learn ethos of the past. The science festival is another foundation stone for the far north.
Another foundation stone—perhaps the most important—is the University of the Highlands and Islands. I know that every member welcomes last week’s announcement about the UHI acquiring university status. It is a major step forward. I thank colleagues from all sides of Parliament for their support. As a Highland member, I am truly grateful. As the UHI develops, it provides another opportunity in relation to science.
I take on board Willie Coffey’s point that access should be equal to all, regardless of financial background. I do not want to take away from the great work that the four centres do, but I wish that there was some way in which those centres could reach out to satellite mini-centres, based in the far north but working with the UHI, with the skills that we have already and with Professor Iain Baikie’s schools science festival. If that were possible, we might be able to achieve something. As I am always saying in this place, the problem that I have is the geographic challenge for people, young and old, in my constituency. It ain’t easy for folks to get to Aberdeen and the other great science centres.
This is my first opportunity to welcome Angela Constance as a minister—I am a bit tardier than others in doing so. I ask her to consider whether we could reach out to the remoter parts of Scotland without detracting from the excellent work that the centres do, so that no one is disadvantaged by geography. Everyone has an equal right to the excellent thrust of what Joe FitzPatrick was talking about.
17:32
I start as other members have done and thank Joe FitzPatrick for securing the debate. It is timeous, because it has been a while since I have been to my local science centre, Glasgow Science Centre. I assure the staff and patrons of the science centre who are here today that I will ensure that I visit the centre again in the near future. The debate will reignite my interest in the centre. I apologise to them for not being as active in following their successes as I could have been.
I want to talk about the role of science in my life. I drifted into teaching modern studies—social sciences rather than science. However, two of the most exciting lessons that I had as a child were science lessons. In one lesson, I stood in a plastic tray with one hand on the Van de Graaff generator and the other pointed at a Bunsen burner, and lit the Bunsen burner. It was great fun. On another occasion, we were taken down to the local rugby field, where we watched children in the distance banging their cymbals and we had to time how long it took the noise to reach us. It helped us to understand the speed of sound.
Those are two little examples of curriculum for excellence methods of teaching that have always existed in Scottish schools. It is the kind of good practice that the curriculum for excellence is recognising properly for the first time. Glasgow Science Centre—and, I am sure, the other science centres—ignites that kind of excitement and imagination in young people. That is why the centres are so important. We must continue to invest in them because they capture the imagination of people who might otherwise not have been interested in science.
In preparation for the debate, I looked at some recent data for Glasgow Science Centre. I was hoping that it would be good. It was not good; it was fantastic. Here are some basic figures to begin with: 24 per cent of those who visit Glasgow Science Centre are from Glasgow itself but, as Willie Coffey has rightly pointed out, many, many more come from other parts of the west of Scotland. However, 24 per cent of visitors are from overseas, which shows that, for many people, it is a premier tourist attraction. It is also not the case that the same people in Glasgow and the west of Scotland go time and again, because 59 per cent of those who go to the centre are first-time visitors. Moreover, these are not people who have always been interested in science; the evidence indicates that 37 per cent of those who go through the centre’s door consider themselves as knowing almost nothing about the subject. They have gone to learn. Finally, in the last year for which figures are available, 104,000 schoolchildren accessed a positive learning outcome via the centre.
Traditionally, science has been seen as a male-dominated field. That is certainly not the case according to the figures for Glasgow Science Centre, where half the visitors are female. The service that it provides is not gender specific. On every access, delivery and outcome point, the centre is delivering for people.
I also noted in the recent report on Glasgow Science Centre that it carried out a survey on what it could do better—Jeez, if we politicians asked what we could do better, the list would be very long. However, half the people who were surveyed could not think of anything that they wanted to be done better; in fact, 67 per cent of people thought that the service that they had received from the science centre was what they had expected or better. What politician would not want that sort of minimum two-thirds approval rating?
I have that.
Apparently, two thirds of people have never heard of Jamie Stone. That is not science.
I welcome Joe FitzPatrick’s debate and congratulate Glasgow Science Centre on the good job that it does. I will certainly revisit it in the very near future.
17:36
I, too, warmly congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on securing this very topical debate on Scotland’s four science centres, which are in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and, of course, next door to the Parliament in Edinburgh at Our Dynamic Earth.
I extend a very warm welcome to our visitors from Scotland’s science centres, who are in the public gallery. It is right that we take time to highlight and celebrate their contribution to supporting Scotland’s economy and wider society; after all, science and innovation are vital ingredients in this Government’s pursuit of sustainable economic growth. Scotland’s world-class, world-leading science base will underpin economic recovery and allow us to progress towards our aspiration for a Scotland that is a powerhouse of technology, innovation and enterprise.
However, science in today’s Scotland can and must extend beyond wealth creation, critical though that is, and reach deep into every corner of our society. Even if the connections are not immediately obvious, science is at the heart of the way we live and everything that we do; that point was well made by Stewart Stevenson.
The Government’s vision is to create in Scotland a culture of science as well as a scientifically literate society that at all levels embraces and values the contribution and importance of science to everyday life and engages with key scientific issues—
Will the minister give way?
—and a society with a technologically skilled workforce that encourages young people to pursue the study of and careers in science.
I apologise to the minister for interrupting her in mid-sentence, but she drew breath.
Does the minister agree that, in addition to the science centres’ great work, small units throughout the country should be recognised and commended for their great work? I am thinking in particular of a unique facility in East Kilbride—the Scottish universities environmental research centre—and I am sure that with a bit of joint thought, discussion and effort the educational outreach work that the likes of that organisation carry out could be enhanced for the benefit of all. Such an approach might also answer Jamie Stone’s point about ensuring that we reach every part of the country.
I thank Ms Fabiani for highlighting that I must learn to breathe through my ears so that I do not have to draw breath in future. Nevertheless, her point is well made and if she cares to write to me with the detail, I will ensure that Mr Russell takes a close look at it.
The benefits of getting our science policy right are potentially significant. They range from better-informed personal lifestyle and health choices to public involvement in science-based policy development and tackling the bigger global challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity. On the risks of getting our science policy wrong, Derek Bok, formerly of Harvard University, said:
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
Science learning in school is not only the responsibility of teachers, although I will now have an enduring image of Bob Doris and a Bunsen burner. Many members have spoken about the curriculum for excellence, which provides a framework for partnership working within which the wider science community, including the science centres, has an opportunity to support excellence inside and outside the classroom. The centres provide a source of inspiration—of wow and wonder—help to nurture a fascination with science that people may retain throughout their lives, and provide a shop front for bringing the science of our excellent researchers in further and higher education out of the lab to the wider public.
It is interesting that, annually, around 75 per cent of the visitors to the science centres are not children, but other members of the public. Joe FitzPatrick was right to say that the centres are not just for children—although, as a married woman, I would certainly not like to commend speed dating. On a more serious note, I want science centres to continue their excellent work, but I challenge them to be alert to new and important niches of activity where they can add value and help to cement and consolidate important related initiatives. Joe FitzPatrick spoke very well of the new science learning institute at Dundee Science Centre as an excellent example of where that is done. The centre has identified an enabling role that it can play in facilitating partnerships and collaborations between existing and new friends to support science learning, teacher training and continuing professional development across the city and the region that aligns synergistically—I shall move on to the point that Elaine Murray made, as I cannot even pronounce that word.
Elaine Murray spoke about the very positive HMIE reports with favourable results for all the science centres. They were very much about assessing the alignment of the science centres with formal education.
Nanette Milne spoke very well of Satrosphere in Aberdeen. It is to its credit that it has a new management agreement with Dundee Science Centre and has made new connections with the University of Aberdeen. That has resulted in a far higher profile for it in the city of Aberdeen and elsewhere.
Although the current economic climate is extremely tough, I am nevertheless delighted to confirm that, in contrast to what is happening in the rest of the UK, we plan to continue to support the centres in 2011-12 to the tune of £2.6 million in recognition of the invaluable work that they undertake.
I accept that not everyone is able to or wishes to visit a centre, so we need to find other ways of bringing science to them. We recognise the challenges of geography and inclusion that parts of Scotland face, so we plan to provide an additional £200,000 in 2011-12 to support transport costs to the centres for visitors from remote or socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. I hope that that is of interest to both Mr Coffey and Mr Stone.
I conclude by referring to the science and engineering 21 education action plan process that is currently under way. It is chaired by the chief scientific adviser for Scotland, Professor Anne Glover, and will set a strategic direction for science education and engagement for the coming years. I look forward to seeing the centres, and indeed the wider science community, playing an active role in that process as it moves forward in the months ahead.
Before I forget, I will respond to the issue that Sandra White raised. My understanding is that the Glasgow Science Centre has an endowment fund that no other science centre has. If she writes to me in more detail on the issue, I will ensure that she receives a proper and detailed answer to her points.
Meeting closed at 17:45.