The Foundation

The Montréal Science Centre Foundation turns 22 this year. With two years of pandemic now behind us, the Foundation is keeping busy to ensure that the Science Centre can continue to pursue all its development activities. This is an opportunity for us to express our gratitude to Foundation donors and partners for their generous investments and ongoing support.

It is thanks to their support that the Foundation can continue its work in developing world-class permanent exhibitions and offering meaningful educational programs. Donor contributions allow the Science Centre to pursue its activities, allow the Foundation to pursue its mission, and allow donors to support the pursuit of some of science and tech’s most fascinating questions in remarkable and innovative ways. Donations directly help us pursue our initiatives and further our commitment to embrace diversity, eliminate barriers, and make visits to the Science Centre as accessible as possible for everyone.

A donation that makes a real difference!

The Foundation works to make science accessible to everyone. It also works to make a real difference in the lives of young people. Thanks to its school programs and its interactive exhibition designs, the Foundation helps awaken thousands of young minds to the wonders of science and technology and its sponsorship program offers disadvantaged youth an opportunity to explore and discover the wonderful world of science.

The Montréal Science Centre Foundation is pleased to invite you to its very first fundraising event for families.

The event will include an exclusive sneak preview of the Dinosaurs Around the World exhibition. Guests of all ages will also have the opportunity to enjoy an educational show on dinosaurs entitled À la découverte des dinosaures (French version of the Dinosaur Discovery Show) and a screening of the film Dinosaurs of Antarctica at the IMAX®TELUS Theatre. A series of interactive activities will also be presented for 5 to 12 year-olds.

Come travel the ancient continents of the Age of Reptiles while supporting the mission and educational initiatives of the Montréal Science Centre Foundation. Meet some of the dinosaurs that ruled the Earth and learn how they took advantage of continental drift to travel the globe.

Get Tickets

For more information and for corporate packages:
Olfa Driss, Manager of the Montréal Science Centre Foundation
odriss@vieuxportdemontreal.com 
514 838-9558

The zaniest fundraising gala in town!

The Celebration of Science event will be back in 2023 and will be presented in an entirely new format. Stay tuned!

View photos from the last event held on February 20, 2022.

The Foundation directly funds the development of Science Centre’s permanent exhibitions and school programs using 90% of the funds it raises each year. Le Science Centre features four permanent exhibitions:

• Mini Mondo offers children aged 0 to 7 a fascinating and interactive custom-sized space to explore. The exhibition is designed to teach children about protecting the environment and to learn all about the physical world.

• Fabrik is a creative workshop space designed to challenge visitors with tasks involving invention and assembly using all sorts of objects. On their own or in teams, visitors of all ages are invited to invent gadgets and assemble them using a collection of odds and ends found in the workshop space.

• Human invites visitors to explore how the human body has been transformed over thousands of years of evolution and understand why and how the human body changes over a lifetime.

• Explore offers visitors a chance to discover the science behind motion, air, light, water, geometry and matter, as well as to experiment with code, in large spaces filled with wonder, discovery, and highly interactive stations.

Since its opening, the Science Centre and its team of educational specialists have worked at developing new educational programs in keeping with the cycle levels of Québec students:

• Planet of the Sense (Elementary, Cycle 1)
  This workshop invites students to program Sensor, a super robot explorer, to help it discover a new habitable planet for humans.

• Shhh! It’s Story Time (Elementary, Cycle 2)
  This workshop lets students bring an Indigenous tale to life by creating sound effects and lighting for the stage. The experience helps them explore the mysteries of sound and light.

• Mysterious Machines (Elementary, Cycle 3)
  This workshop asks students to assemble and bring a mysterious machine to life. Their activities allow them to have fun while exploring the principles behind simple machines (wheel, lever, pulley, etc.).

• Shock Wave! (Secondary, Cycle 1) This workshop asks students to become civil engineers and build an earthquake-resistant building. They learn about protecting those living in high seismic activity areas.

• The Great Debaters – Human (Secondary, Cycle 2)
  In front of a mock government, students debate three hot technology topics that are not as far-fetched as we’d think: the resurrection of extinct species, the protection of genetic information, and the possibility of transhuman cyborgs. Making ethical choices won’t be easy.

• M-organ’s Journey
  Students explore the amazing human body thanks to giant interactive games and discover the inner workings of the body’s systems, including digestion, respiration, and circulation.

The Foundation grants youths under the age of 18 and from disadvantaged backgrounds free access to the Science Centre’s permanent exhibitions. The program is divided into two sponsorship categories:

• School Group Sponsorship: Each year, the Foundation’s school group sponsorship program helps the Science Centre welcome 8,000 youths from disadvantaged backgrounds and offers about a hundred annual memberships to families who would otherwise not be able  to afford one. In keeping with its mission, the Foundation coordinates group visits from various community organizations, day camps, and hospitals.

• Family Sponsorship: The Foundation’s family sponsorship program offers children an opportunity to get acquainted with science and technology which in turn can increase their chances of pursuing higher education. The Foundation works with organizations that support families struggling with different issues (socioeconomic, domestic violence, children living with an illness, etc.) which in turn select families to receive annual memberships to the Science Centre. The Foundation works with numerous organizations each year, including La Dauphinelle, Le Phare, Enfants et Familles, Grands Frères — Grandes Sœurs, Association des familles du Centre-Sud, and Baobab.

In 2018, the Foundation funded the creation of the very first travelling program aimed at disadvantaged schools from outside the Montréal region as well as special education groups unable to offer their students school outings.

The MSC on the Road program was designed to offer school group activities beyond the Science Centre’s walls, primarily to reach students with behavioural, communication, and autism spectrum disorders.

This project’s unique offer — programming formatted specifically to meet student needs — earned the Science Centre the “Télé-Québec Coup de cœur du jury” prize in 2019 from the SMQ (Société des musées du Québec), the province’s museums organization.

Offered thanks to generous contributions from the Trottier Family Foundation.

• Benoît Légaré
• Bleu Lavande
• Bouthillette Parizeau inc
• Consultants techniques Technilogic inc.
• Caisses Desjardins des versants du Nord
• Fonds de recherche du Québec
• Gary Whittaker
• Hill + Knowlton Stratégies
• Johanne O’Malley
• Le Centre des sciences de Montréal
• Marc Donato
• Mantoria
• Neil Jones
• Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
• Pascale Lehoux
• Pratt & Whitney
• Quantum Travaux civils
• Services professionnels Brio Inc.
• Société Immobilière du Canada
• TELUS

• Société immobilière du Canada
• Centre des sciences de Montréal
• Telus
• Technilogic
• Le Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies
• Mantoria Inc
• Services professionnels BRIO
• Pratt & Whitney
• L'ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
• Desjardins
• Bleu lavande