Letters | Let’s inspire the future scientists from Hong Kong secondary schools
Readers discuss how to excite student interest in science, the legacy of physicist Chen-ning Yang, and typhoon leave
Wisely, Professor Yau highlighted encouraging innovation driven by curiosity and interest and removing bureaucratic obstacles as core factors in nurturing science.
For decades, some of us in science education have talked about the repressive atmosphere that science curriculums place on Hong Kong schools. Laboratory activities which can bring students sparks of personal excitement and achievement are all too often shunted aside. The demands of a fat syllabus stifle enjoyment. The creative energy of curiosity that could shape a lab experience is crushed.
Mathematics – the Fibonacci series, for instance – is not presented as a tool of science. Mathematics, as a language of science, is buried in a fat syllabus which dictates teaching style.
Over the past decade or so, I have helped encourage and judge a biological drawing competition. Typically, hundreds of entries pour in. The fee-paying independent schools tend to be conspicuous but, encouragingly, some fantastic efforts arrive from “lower band” schools. I have met students from the ordinary schools and the sparkle in their eyes when their curiosity and interest are recognised and rewarded is totally moving.