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Shell Questacon Science Circus

The Shell Questacon Science Circus is Australia’s largest travelling science program, covering 25 000 km and visiting 100 000 people each year in regional, rural and remote areas.

Training science communicators

Each year the Shell Questacon Science Circus team is made up of about 15 science communication students and they travel with a semi-trailer filled with 50 interactive exhibits, ready to be unpacked and set up in country schools and town halls.

The Science Circus team travels to a different state each school term, using regional centres as a base for community science exhibitions and performances. The team divides up into small groups to travel to schools in the surrounding area, giving science demonstrations in the classroom and professional development workshops for teachers.

When not gaining practical skills on the road, the Science Circus students attend the Australian National University (ANU ) completing a Graduate Diploma in Scientific Communication, delivered through the Centre For Public Awareness of Science (CPAS ).

Graduates are employed right around the world in key roles in science communication and other disciplines.

History of the Science Circus

The Science of Success

A summary of the Science Circus and the graduates of the program

The Science Circus was created by Questacon’s founding Director, Prof. Mike Gore and ANU’s Dean of Science (1985) Prof. Chris Bryant. Questacon, as a national institution, wanted to take science to the nation with touring programs. A trial Science Circus was road-tested with support from Shell in 1985, ’86 and ’87.

In 1988 the Shell Questacon Science Circus hit the road – with nine dedicated ANU Science Communication students, a semi-trailer full of interactive exhibits developed by Questacon and generous support from Shell in Australia.

Questacon is proud of the partnerships with sponsors that have allowed the Science Circus to travel some 400 000 km and see over a million Australians.

‘Science of Success’ booklet

This 22 page full colour booklet has a listing of all the Science Circus graduates to 2003, and highlights some of the career paths some of them have taken.

Download the Shell Questacon Science Circus 'Science of Success' booklet (2.3 MB pdf file).

The Graduates

Use can the search fields below to find out more about the graduates from this unique program, or you can browse the list of all graduates.

Note: some Graduates have not given their consent to display their details here and so their names will not appear in your search results.