The House of Science has grown from Chris Duggan’s vision in 2013, to raise scientific literacy among young children before they reached secondary level education. The need was sparked by what Chris, as a teacher, found lacking in the NZ education curriculum.
As House of Science has grown, we needed help managing operations and have recently started using TidyEnterprise. We can now track everything from research projects and staff resources to stock levels and ordering, as well as what’s needed to create or re-stock resources, kit distribution and return.
Every week the House of Science sends out hundreds of blue boxes, packed with hands-on experiments researched and designed to get primary school children excited about science and to give teachers the confidence and resources to make it part of everyday education; to bring to life to the core values of Curiosity, Collaboration and Community set by the House of Science. Those blue boxes include everything from equipment and materials, to teacher and student instructions, and they’re available in both Maori and English. This was to fulfil Chris Duggan’s aim of normalising both science in the classroom as well as the language.
House of Science also offers free professional development services for all teachers, as well as extra-curricular programmes after school and during that holidays to engage children nationally in fun, hands-on, science-learning activities. As a not-for-profit, the House of Science must still manage and account for its income and expenditure. Its income is made up of grants, donations, business sponsorship and small contributions paid by schools. Its expenditure comprising overheads to the materials that fill up each blue box. The management software that Chris, CEO of House of Science, and her team use is all cloud-based. Tidy is used to manage the House of Science projects and the materials that go into those blue boxes; its inventory that is lent out to schools. “None of us have experience in manufacturing or sales – we’re all scientists or educators,” Chris explains. As House of Science has grown, they needed help managing operations and for this they use TidyEnterprise.
They can now track everything from research projects and staff resources to stock levels and ordering, as well as what’s needed to create or re-stock the blue science kit boxes as well as their distribution out to schools and their return after use. Tidy connects with Xero so that day to day transactions can flow across and be incorporated into their financial accounting. “The finance side through Xero has been absolutely fantastic to use for non-accountants like me, so that was a huge help. It’s very affordable, and the power of being able to report to our grantors and sponsors in a really professional and easy way has been key.” Because House of Science is a charitable trust, Tidy provides access to its cloud-based software solution at a low cost through its TidyGiving initiative to give back and support communities it’s part of.
