The development of the Wheatbelt Science Trail took two years from inception through to attracting funding and developing the product. The launch was the culmination of months of work by the Wheatbelt Science Hub to seek nominations, develop information, create an app and place a geocaching trail.
Over 170 potential sites were identified through a community nominations process and a workshop for science organisations, local government and tourism providers held earlier this year. A community geocaching workshop was also held in July. The first 56 sites have been developed, and the Wheatbelt Science Hub hopes to attract further funding to complete more on the list.
The Wheatbelt Science Trail combines information on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) behind sites of interest across the Wheatbelt. Sites are categorised by ‘do’, ‘see’ or ‘learn’ depending on the experience level, and cover twelve topics.
The Trail can be accessed online at wheatbeltscience.org.au/trail and offers either a map with a choice of three experience levels, or a search function to filter by topic.