Team:NYMU-Taipei/HP/Silver-Education
University Agronomy Education
Time:2016/07/12
Responder: Department of Agronomy, NTU, Prof. Lin, Y.-R.
Place: National Taiwan Univeristy
Abstract:
We met Prof. Lin, Y.-R. to discuss about the interaction between science and agricultural workers. Prof. Lin mentioned that a researcher has responsibility to spray knowledge to society in a simple and clear way and help they to do the right decision. She focused on helping farmers to grow food in a more efficient and safer way for over a decade. We learned a great attitude of being a scientist from Prof. Lin.5555
Content:
The science can be divided into three, basic science, theory science, and apply science. Among these three, the apply science take the responsibility of connection between science and society most of the time. Our job is to cooperate with Agricultural Research and Extension Station to educate the farmers about latest knowledge. Scientists often cooperate with farmers too. Take the latest technology, Marker-assisted Selection, as an example, it is hard to discuss to the farmers. Thus, the Agricultural Research and Extension Station helps to build up connection between researcher and farmer.
The lack of knowledge in something would cause irrational rejection since human being is fear of uncertain things. Most of people in Taiwan think that the synthetic biology is dangerous to our environment. The synthetic biology is seen as Genetically Engineered Organism(GMO) by most of the people. Thus, our job is to promote the correct concept and knowledge. As long as they have knowledge, they would choose the right decision.
The education is long-term process. We have done several things for knowledge promotion for Taiwan agriculture development. First, we opened courses of Technology of Agriculture for administrative staff in Council of Agriculture in order to keep up with the latest technology around the world. Second, we educate farmers. We are like an interpreter to translate difficult science research into simple language that farmer can understand. Last but not least, we teach our student to practice what they have learned and pay back to the society.
Biology teacher in High School Education 1
Time: 07/05/16
Respondent: 黃國修 HUANG,KUO-HSIU
Location: National Yilan Senior High School, Taiwan
Q1: How do you encourage your students to enter the field of biology?
A: Students studying biology shouldn’t be disconnected from nature, especially those studying ecology. That’s why I often take my students out to the field in addition to giving traditional lectures. I also like to teach in an interdisciplinary way. For instance, I’ll often cooperate with the geology teacher, leading students to study organisms living in intertidal areas. This type of cooperation is dependent upon the subject matter at hand and the other teachers’ interests, of course. Through these field excursions, students often gain a deeper understanding and appreciation towards our environment.
In Yilan, we teach Applied Biosystems, a book regarding agriculture and biotechnology. During class, I encourage discussion among students and hands-on activities. For example, we have cooperated with the local farmers to let students participate in agricultural activities.
Throughout the student’s sophomore and junior years, biology class is more focused on exploration and discovery; but during their senior year, in preparation for the college entrance exam, we follow the textbook more closely. The school takes into account the needs of different students and recommends them not to take extra lessons outside of school (e.g. cram school).
Q2: How does the Information Age affect your teaching style?
A: We often assign research projects to students, but many of them only know how to search in Wikipedia. In many cases, a student already has an opinion in mind then goes online to search for evidence that confirms their opinion, often ignoring other evidence with different perspectives. For example, one of the research questions asks whether alcohol can kill viruses. During the first week, many students confidently said “yes”, but after some hints, they usually come up with a different answer. Multimedia use depends on the lesson at hand; some teachers use PowerPoint presentations to enhance the visual effect on specific chapter, while others choose to play a Youtube video to help students understand the lesson material.
Q3: iGEM is closely related to synthetic biology. What is your opinion on synthetic biology?
A: For many high school students, synthetic biology is a long way off. They only learn about the concept of synthetic biology during their senior year. I’m personally not in favor of teaching university material to high school students. However, I am very happy to see students go deep into research if they show interest in synthetic biology. The philosophy of synthetic biology: it allows one to play God and create lots of organisms using simple tools, almost like the putting legos together.
Q4: Science and Humanities
A: Biology can relate to lots of other issues: plastic waste in the ocean, agriculture and food safety… etc. I require students to participate in DFC: Design For Change Challenge. Looking around, students may feel disconnected from the society, but that is not actually the case. Through DFC, students can realize that they too have the power to change the ones around them, indirectly changing society in the process. For instance, a former student researched on the ingredients contained in each brand of instant noodles, compiling them into a table; allowing consumers to quickly and conveniently check for themselves. Another student did community service at a remote town, teaching the local children new scientific discoveries and playing little games etc. Some students found their direction in life through these activities. Once you step out of your comfort zone, the resources are there for you to use.
Summary
Mr. HUANG not only teaches students the basic subject but inspires them to love their environment and community by introducing them the field. We found KAP, knowledge, attitude, and practice, on Mr. HUANG. He delivers the knowledge in a brand new way to students, changing their attitude on biology and the environment. Last but not least, they do DFC to actually practice their thought. Through this kind of education, children would build a strong connection with nature and be inspired to protect her.
Teacher HUANG is unlike the other teacher in Taiwan because of his passion, effort, and responsibility.
Biology teacher in High School Education 2
Time: 08/31/16
Respondent:Teacher in Beijing No.14 High School
Place: Beijing No.14 High School, China
Q1 How do you encourage your students to enter the field of biology
A: The best teacher of all time is interest, so we inspire the student first. The biology is related to daily life. We can inspire our student from healthcare, environment protection, and economic issues.
We also inspire student with science history to develop the ability of searching. By following the path of those great scientists, we can find out how they pondered. In class, we use some classical experiences as background. Figuring out how those scientists facing problems, analyzing them, and looking for solutions. The ultimate goal of teaching hopes to combine the knowledge, technology, and the passion of science.
Q2 How does the Information Age affect your teaching style?
A: The benefits are more. We can make teaching abundant with the help of online media. What’s more, we can present the difficult or abstract concept in animation or video. These would be a great help for teachers and students.
Q3 iGEM is closely related to synthetic biology. What is your opinion on synthetic biology?
A: The gene engineering can produce the things that human wanted. In addition, the technology can even change or recreat the characteristic of the microbial which has a lot of applications in agriculture, medical healthcare and so on. The science is a double edges sword, so we better not only take a good care about the biosafety issues but develop a integrated the law on the synthetic biology.
Q4 Science and Humanities
A: Biology is a natural science. We need the give students both knowledge and
cognitive ability to make them gain the knowledge and technology for daily life. Furthermore, we hope students to develop humanities since the biology is a life science. We expect our students to respect every creature and treat them equally.
Recently, the synthetic biology, cloning technology and other biological technology are developing very fast. We want students to have some responsibilities when we discuss the safety and ethics about these topics. All in all, the biology is a science that always connected to our life and attitude.
Education and Promotion synthetic biology in high school
7/18 annd 7/19, We went to I-lan senior high school and taught them what is synthesis biology and its controversy. We present in social science major class and science an engineering class respectively. We talk about what is synthesis biology is in general, its mechanism and ended at controvertial issues brought by this technology. We hope that we not only provide knowledge over technology and development, but also provide them with another view of point. As they are becoming more mature, they shall be able to think critically.
First talk in I-lan senior high school, 7/18
Second talk in I-lan senior high school, 7/19
University Agronomy Education
Time:2016/07/12
Responder: Department of Agronomy, NTU, Prof. Lin, Y.-R.
Place: National Taiwan Univeristy
Abstract:
We met Prof. Lin, Y.-R. to discuss about the interaction between science and agricultural workers. Prof. Lin mentioned that a researcher has responsibility to spray knowledge to society in a simple and clear way and help they to do the right decision. She focused on helping farmers to grow food in a more efficient and safer way for over a decade. We learned a great attitude of being a scientist from Prof. Lin.5555
Content:
The science can be divided into three, basic science, theory science, and apply science. Among these three, the apply science take the responsibility of connection between science and society most of the time. Our job is to cooperate with Agricultural Research and Extension Station to educate the farmers about latest knowledge. Scientists often cooperate with farmers too. Take the latest technology, Marker-assisted Selection, as an example, it is hard to discuss to the farmers. Thus, the Agricultural Research and Extension Station helps to build up connection between researcher and farmer.
The lack of knowledge in something would cause irrational rejection since human being is fear of uncertain things. Most of people in Taiwan think that the synthetic biology is dangerous to our environment. The synthetic biology is seen as Genetically Engineered Organism(GMO) by most of the people. Thus, our job is to promote the correct concept and knowledge. As long as they have knowledge, they would choose the right decision.
The education is long-term process. We have done several things for knowledge promotion for Taiwan agriculture development. First, we opened courses of Technology of Agriculture for administrative staff in Council of Agriculture in order to keep up with the latest technology around the world. Second, we educate farmers. We are like an interpreter to translate difficult science research into simple language that farmer can understand. Last but not least, we teach our student to practice what they have learned and pay back to the society.
Biology teacher in High School Education 1
Time: 07/05/16
Respondent: 黃國修 HUANG,KUO-HSIU
Location: National Yilan Senior High School, Taiwan
Q1: How do you encourage your students to enter the field of biology?
A: Students studying biology shouldn’t be disconnected from nature, especially those studying ecology. That’s why I often take my students out to the field in addition to giving traditional lectures. I also like to teach in an interdisciplinary way. For instance, I’ll often cooperate with the geology teacher, leading students to study organisms living in intertidal areas. This type of cooperation is dependent upon the subject matter at hand and the other teachers’ interests, of course. Through these field excursions, students often gain a deeper understanding and appreciation towards our environment.
In Yilan, we teach Applied Biosystems, a book regarding agriculture and biotechnology. During class, I encourage discussion among students and hands-on activities. For example, we have cooperated with the local farmers to let students participate in agricultural activities.
Throughout the student’s sophomore and junior years, biology class is more focused on exploration and discovery; but during their senior year, in preparation for the college entrance exam, we follow the textbook more closely. The school takes into account the needs of different students and recommends them not to take extra lessons outside of school (e.g. cram school).
Q2: How does the Information Age affect your teaching style?
A: We often assign research projects to students, but many of them only know how to search in Wikipedia. In many cases, a student already has an opinion in mind then goes online to search for evidence that confirms their opinion, often ignoring other evidence with different perspectives. For example, one of the research questions asks whether alcohol can kill viruses. During the first week, many students confidently said “yes”, but after some hints, they usually come up with a different answer. Multimedia use depends on the lesson at hand; some teachers use PowerPoint presentations to enhance the visual effect on specific chapter, while others choose to play a Youtube video to help students understand the lesson material.
Q3: iGEM is closely related to synthetic biology. What is your opinion on synthetic biology?
A: For many high school students, synthetic biology is a long way off. They only learn about the concept of synthetic biology during their senior year. I’m personally not in favor of teaching university material to high school students. However, I am very happy to see students go deep into research if they show interest in synthetic biology. The philosophy of synthetic biology: it allows one to play God and create lots of organisms using simple tools, almost like the putting legos together.
Q4: Science and Humanities
A: Biology can relate to lots of other issues: plastic waste in the ocean, agriculture and food safety… etc. I require students to participate in DFC: Design For Change Challenge. Looking around, students may feel disconnected from the society, but that is not actually the case. Through DFC, students can realize that they too have the power to change the ones around them, indirectly changing society in the process. For instance, a former student researched on the ingredients contained in each brand of instant noodles, compiling them into a table; allowing consumers to quickly and conveniently check for themselves. Another student did community service at a remote town, teaching the local children new scientific discoveries and playing little games etc. Some students found their direction in life through these activities. Once you step out of your comfort zone, the resources are there for you to use.
Summary
Mr. HUANG not only teaches students the basic subject but inspires them to love their environment and community by introducing them the field. We found KAP, knowledge, attitude, and practice, on Mr. HUANG. He delivers the knowledge in a brand new way to students, changing their attitude on biology and the environment. Last but not least, they do DFC to actually practice their thought. Through this kind of education, children would build a strong connection with nature and be inspired to protect her.
Teacher HUANG is unlike the other teacher in Taiwan because of his passion, effort, and responsibility.
Biology teacher in High School Education 2
Time: 08/31/16
Respondent:Teacher in Beijing No.14 High School
Place: Beijing No.14 High School, China
Q1 How do you encourage your students to enter the field of biology
A: The best teacher of all time is interest, so we inspire the student first. The biology is related to daily life. We can inspire our student from healthcare, environment protection, and economic issues.
We also inspire student with science history to develop the ability of searching. By following the path of those great scientists, we can find out how they pondered. In class, we use some classical experiences as background. Figuring out how those scientists facing problems, analyzing them, and looking for solutions. The ultimate goal of teaching hopes to combine the knowledge, technology, and the passion of science.
Q2 How does the Information Age affect your teaching style?
A: The benefits are more. We can make teaching abundant with the help of online media. What’s more, we can present the difficult or abstract concept in animation or video. These would be a great help for teachers and students.
Q3 iGEM is closely related to synthetic biology. What is your opinion on synthetic biology?
A: The gene engineering can produce the things that human wanted. In addition, the technology can even change or recreat the characteristic of the microbial which has a lot of applications in agriculture, medical healthcare and so on. The science is a double edges sword, so we better not only take a good care about the biosafety issues but develop a integrated the law on the synthetic biology.
Q4 Science and Humanities
A: Biology is a natural science. We need the give students both knowledge and
cognitive ability to make them gain the knowledge and technology for daily life. Furthermore, we hope students to develop humanities since the biology is a life science. We expect our students to respect every creature and treat them equally.
Recently, the synthetic biology, cloning technology and other biological technology are developing very fast. We want students to have some responsibilities when we discuss the safety and ethics about these topics. All in all, the biology is a science that always connected to our life and attitude.
Education and Promotion synthetic biology in high school
7/18 annd 7/19, We went to I-lan senior high school and taught them what is synthesis biology and its controversy. We present in social science major class and science an engineering class respectively. We talk about what is synthesis biology is in general, its mechanism and ended at controvertial issues brought by this technology. We hope that we not only provide knowledge over technology and development, but also provide them with another view of point. As they are becoming more mature, they shall be able to think critically.
First talk in I-lan senior high school, 7/18
Second talk in I-lan senior high school, 7/19
