Chern (left) and Yarden (right)
Jerusalem, Sept. 12 (CNA) Tang Prize Chief Executive Officer Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川) said Monday that Taiwan can learn from Israel's emphasis on science education, after visiting the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Rehovot, Israel.
Chern said that despite Israel being located in the desert, the country's speedy development can be attributed to the government's emphasis on science education.
He added that this emphasis has cultivated future scientific research leaders by allowing teachers, students and the general public to be deeply rooted in the scientific spirit, which includes logical thinking, critical thinking and verification.
At the start of the visit, Chern met with WIS Department of Science Teaching head Anat Yarden and learned about her thoughts and feedback on the recent International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) regional congress.
Yarden introduced the WIS Department of Science Teaching as a department that does research and pushes for scientific education by accepting postgraduate students.
She said her department includes the development of new ideas for scientific education, along with new methods of teaching and compiling teaching materials.
She added that her department also covers the development of teaching for junior high school subjects, including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and environmental science.
The WIS Department of Science Teaching is establishing a platform that links research and the promotion of science education, she said, and through hosting events such as the IUBMB associated conferences, collects the crystallization of wisdom from around the world.
Yarden said the establishment of the science education platform will influence teaching methods and pave the way for an expanded teaching path to enable students to learn to perform scientific thinking such as thinking logically, thinking critically and performing verification, to cultivate the country's future scientists.
Chern also met with WIS Davidson Institute of Science Education Director-General Liat Ben-David, who uses communities and partnerships with schools to foster science education in both formal and informal education for the public, to allow Israeli children to be immersed in scientific thinking and to cultivate logical and critical thinking in people of all ages.
WIS Vice President Michal Neeman said that the institute's primary job is not only to concentrate on research and transform it into commercial technology, but also to educate the general public and children.
She added that knowledge and talent is a country's greatest resource.
Chern and Neeman also talked about possible future cooperation.
(By Kang Shih-jen and William Yen)
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