2017 Annual Report

Edmonton opened the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium, the first public planetarium in Canada, in 1960. The Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre, the largest, most advanced planetarium in the country, replaced the planetarium 24 years later and grew into the signature experience at the new Edmonton Space Sciences Centre! We commenced work in 2017 on the Zeidler Dome, a cutting-edge theatre to keep Edmonton as a world leader in dome projection and planetarium learning.

The Hon. Amarjeet Sohi, MP for Mill Woods, and Randy Boissonnault, MP for Edmonton Centre, visited TWOSE on May 25 to announce $3.35 million in federal funding to support the Star Theatre and the Space Place Gallery renovation. That funding, along with support from the City of Edmonton, allowed the renovation to begin just after Labour Day.

This marked a signature moment in implementing the TWOSE’s 2015-19 Strategic Plan and a great leap forward for the Aurora Project. This work was crucial to our strategic goal to Build a standout facility for our community. It also builds on almost 60 years of service with a public planetarium, longer than any other community in Canada.

What about the other three strategic goals? 2017 was a good year for TWOSE to Lead the science conversation.

We hosted the travelling exhibition, New Eyes on the Universe, in February in partnership with the University of Alberta and its astroparticle physics research group. This exhibition explored the science of neutrinos, research that resulted Canadian astrophysicist Dr. Art McDonald winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.

We were particularly proud to host the first Canadian showing of the travelling exhibition, The Science Behind Pixar Exhibition, which ran from the start of summer through the Christmas season. Our guests strongly approved of the exhibition, which was filled with science, technology and memories of great movie moments.

We acquired a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in partnership with the National Research Council and NSERC as part of the overall upgrade of quality scientific tools for our audience. We continued our Research Zone program, which trains researchers in science communication. The researchers develop skills and build table-top exhibits through six weeks of workshops to use in interacting with guests. Each researcher in the program commits to returning to the science centre to do outreach at least three times a year.

We began our first Lab Quest program in May. This program invites researchers who study human subjects to do their work at TWOSE. By participating as subjects in the studies, our guests become familiar with the research process. It’s a win-win situation.

A huge part of TWOSE’s success is connecting with its key audience and developing new ones, as we Engage and inspire our audience.

Schools and young people are an important part of our audience. We continued to work closely with school districts, attracting 75,668 students to curriculum-ready programs. Students also participated in after-school activities such as the FIRST Tech Robotics Challenge. Our staff and a team of volunteer experts coached students in this rigorous competition.

Dark Matters adult nights continued to thrive with events attracting close to 1,000 guests. In 2017 new programming opportunities for adults grew with the increased involvement of volunteers from The Edmonton Space & Science Foundation. The Foundation’s science program committee held its first event, Science on Tap, in August. It dealt with artificial intelligence and featured Dr. Randy Goebel of the U. of A. The Foundation also selected its first science fellow, Dr. Greg Sivakoff, recognizing an outstanding young scientist working in Northern Alberta.

Six TWOSE staff completed the acclaimed University of British Columbia course Reconciliation through Indigenous Education. This online course helped us to understand how to relay Indigenous histories, perspectives, worldviews, and approaches to learning in ways that are thoughtful and respectful for our Indigenous community.

Our viability depends on how we manage our business, which underpins strategic goal, Practice sustainable financial operations.

We devoted a lot of attention in 2017 to analyzing and understanding the performance of our various businesses. Our new Purple Pear restaurant successfully grew into its expanded space and menu. It built a reputation for quality. Our IMAX giant-screen theatre had a great year, delivering a memorable film experience. Audiences loved Mysteries of China, Dream Big, Extreme Weather, and Incredible Predators. We also started a relationship with the Edmonton Movie Club and showed a broad range of South Asian cinema, including the IMAX-ready blockbuster, Baahubali 2.

We dramatically revamped the structure of the Foundation, eliminating the non-voting membership category and separating the Board of Directors from membership in the Foundation. This initiative injected new life and direction into the Foundation, and it is already paying dividends.

We decided to go stratospheric to mark International Science Centre and Science Museum Day on November 10! Staff connected instruments to a helium-filled weather balloon that rose 20,000 metres into the stratosphere, collecting video, pressure and temperature data. The balloon finally popped at that altitude and the instruments were recovered in a farmer’s field near Viking, about 150 kilometres East of Edmonton. At TWOSE, we’re always reaching for the stars, but the stratosphere is pretty good, too.

We would like to thank the hard-working TWOSE staff, the 259 volunteers who contributed 14,264 hours during 2017, and the dedication of the volunteer members of the Edmonton Space & Science Foundation and the Board of Directors. This team makes the science centre a success!