Teaching Sciences in 21 st Century – sharing of experience

1. Teaching Sciences in 21st Century– sharing of experience T.K. Ng (HKUST)

2. Contents: • Background: What has changed compared with 10, 20 years ago? • New Education system in HK, New students profile • Different Learning Philosophy • New horizon in Sciences • What are we doing in response? • New modes of teaching, new style of assessment • Teaching Diversity/Education for everyone, Education for the Gifted • Use of Internet/multi-media resources

3. What has changed? 3+3+4 education system School-Based admission versus Program admission Whole person development is emphasized Students have to acquire diverse background of knowledge Students have to have the ability to upgrade themselves even after graduation (whole-life learning) Problem: We (both secondary school & university) are teaching sciences to students with very diverse background!

4. What has changed? 3+3+4 education system For example: admission to HKUST 4+2x We require only one Science Subject (x) for admission into both Science and Engineering Schools The other subject (another x) can be anything; Science has no advantage Problem: We (both secondary school & university) are teaching sciences to students with very diverse background!

5. What has changed? 3+3+4 education system For example: studying at HKUST All students have to talk 1 calculus course All students have to talk courses in science & technology, humanities and social analysis (Common Core) All Engineering students have to take 1 physics course All Science students have to take 1 course from each science discipline (Phy., Chem., Bio) Problem: We (both secondary school & university) are teaching sciences to students with very diverse background!

6. What has changed? Different philosophy of learning The philosophy of both learning and working has changed Whole person development is emphasized Communication/language and other general skills are emphasized Rigorous scientific (quantitative) approach/skill is for small number of students only But yet students are supposed have a broad knowledge base and are able to pick up the basic ideas behind ALL fields! Problem: We (both secondary school & university) are teaching sciences to students with very diverse background!

7. What has changed? New Horizon in Sciences Sciences have evolved drastically in the past 30 years In Physics, Idea of particles and Newtonian mechanics is NO-LONGER fundamental in our modern application of physics Fields (EM field, magnetic field, etc.) and Quantum Physics is fundamental to our modern technology In string theory we are talking about whether we can design a new universe with different fundamental laws of physics Yet: We need to teach the physics fundamentals (mechanics, E&M, Thermodynamics…) to understand new developments in physics (fundamental physics is like calculus……) (Field) (Thermal) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXEC-v5lQ64 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y350oOiunf4

8. What has changed? New Horizon in Sciences Sciences have evolved drastically in the past 30 years scientists and engineers are different compared with their seniors 20 years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ6k2cfb2Ig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7GAx9b8HAQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw8dcb8iKSM

9. What has changed? New challenge in Sciences The problem of students not having enough background in Sciences before taking the subject is just one of the many problems under the big picture of the changing world of science education! What can we do? The goals of teaching has to be defined separately for different groups of students  Different ways of teaching for different kinds of students  different ways of assessments correspondingly! (In HKUST we have different calculus/physics classes designed for students with different academic background.

10. Teaching diversity (I)- education for everyone UST example: 1st Yr. Physics courses Common Core and School-Sponsored course (Energy, Astronomy, Relativity) Requirement for students with zero background in Physics (Eng. & Sci.) (General Physics 0) Requirement for non-major students (General Physics Ia) Requirement for major students (General Physics Ib) (In HKUST we have different calculus/physics classes designed for students with different academic background. We have also “ordinary” and “honored” courses for majors (2nd and above years)

11. Teaching diversity (I)- education for everyone In Physics, a large number of students have interests in the concept and/or application of physics but not the mathematical details of the theory - Examples: Galilean invariance (to layman) Key idea: Teach physics concept without using mathematics but try to explain/demonstrate a physical picture using whatever means. Mathematics come in only if you want to have quantitative answers/numbers. Notice: students learning concept this way answer questions in examinations differently

12. Example 1: Galilean invariance The laws of physics is insensitive to uniform motion (or Newton’s Law is the same in all inertial frames………….) [ Recall Newton’s First Law:An object remains in its state of rest or uniform motion (moving with uniform velocity) in a straight line if there is no net force acting on it. ]

13. The important of Galilean invariance can be seen from the following example: Imagine you are travelling on a very big boat… Maybe in this one… This is a very big boat, and is very stable so that you do not feel any floating up-and-down motion of the boat.

14. Suppose you are living at the interior of the boat and have no window to look outside.

15. actually parking somewhere, or is traveling with a uniform speed. One day, you wake up from a nap, and out of curiosity you want to find out whether the boat is… Can you find that out without asking someone, and without going outside?

16. Expt.?

17. What Galilean invariance said is that you cannot determine whether you are moving (with uniform speed) or not if you perform experiments involving Newton’s Law inside the boat, like looking at the trajectory of a little ball that you throw up, or looking at the motion of anything you see. ?

18. equator: 1600km/hour ? 32km/sec Why don’t we feel that?

19. Question in exam: Two space ships are traveling in parallel in this universe with same velocity v (see figure) separated by distance. The two ships are communicating with each other either by sending light signal or by sending boxes of papers in between. • Let the velocity of light be c, how long does it take for the light signal to go from one ship to the other? Explain your answer. • Let the velocity of the traveling box be u (relative to the ship), how long does it take for the box to go from one ship to the other? Explain your answer.

20. Teaching diversity (II)- education for the gifted University education for all Whole person development is the goal of general education Communication/language and other general skills are emphasized in general UG education Rigorous scientific (quantitative) approach/skill is not emphasized in Secondary/University education Problem: General education is not catered for individual needs but students are ALL different! Students gifted in particular area (Science, Music, Sports, etc.) cannot benefit from present education system where everybody goes through the same curriculum.

21. Teaching diversity (II)- education for the gifted A New Philosophy Everybody is gifted in his/her own way, the goal of gifted education is to help students to fully utilize their potentials! http://ygt.dcsf.gov.uk/ Gifted education → a new philosophy of education for ALL students Gifted/talented students are those who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities i.e. Gifted education is complementary to general education catering for diversity of students abilities/needs!

22. Teaching diversity (II)- education for the gifted Gifted education in Science &Technology Science and Technology is vital to the long-term survival/development of a country The only way to maintain a sustainable world-class S&T team is to make sure that students interested/gifted in Science are properly nurtured. Notice that contrary to the above communication and other general skills are emphasized in general UG education nowadays Education for Gifted students is one of the top-priorities in S&T education worldwide (unfortunately not in HK)

23. Gifted education in HKUST 2001 - offer first course in mathematics (HKUST) 2003 -2012 - offer training of HK team for International Physics Olympiad (HKUST) – very successful! (Other universities join in actively since then and new courses in computer science, biology, humanities, etc. are being offered with the establishment of HKAGE. Not successful because of lack of coherent structure) 2007: we decide to build our own program for Gifted education – collaboration with Trumptech in offering World Class Test 2010 – collaboration with CTY (Johns Hopkins) to offer joint summer camp

24. Gifted education in HKUST 2011: HKUST offered first systematic program (Dual Program) for secondary school students where Students spend most of their time at secondary schools for whole-person development They come to UST at weekends/holidays to take courses (in S&T) of their interests and earn University credits Very successful! 2012-2013: - Expansion/adjustment of Dual program and collaboration with other local and international partners! 2013: - Start new B.Sc. track: “International Research Enrichment” - Start programs at primary schools Problem: no flexibility in HKDSE/Admission of students allowed by EDB

25. Internet resources & Teaching - Efficient use of internet resources in teaching is necessary to keep us (our education) ahead worldwide (at least in the next 20 years) All major universities have on-line free courseware taught by their best teachers No single education unit can match the on-line resources available worldwide We need to learn how to use these resources effectively to enhance our education

26. Example 1: Projectile motion - Use of internet resources to make class more interesting Students got bored by always facing a single teacher in general they think that videos are more interesting. They learn English They will find out that you are actually teaching very well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMVBc8cE5GU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11W0RyRtSIU

27. Example 2: complicated/unfamiliar functions Harmonic (sint, cost) functions Solution of harmonic oscillator We don’t prove that it’s the solution of Newton’ Law for harmonic oscillator in our class We show that wave motion is useful and realistic and can be understood from harmonic oscillator-like equations Mathematics is used to write down a answer we know is correct Exercise: what is roughly the frequency of oscillation,  in the demonstrations? (animation) (wave in water droplet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7fRGXc9SBI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaHLwla2WiI http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/physics/oscillations-gravitation/simple-harmonic-motion/

28. Example 3: Relativity Use of internet resources to explain difficult concepts and to connect what you are teaching with the most fascinating development in physics in the world I start with a story…….. Videos are good for explaining difficult concepts I show more than 10 different videos to explain relativity Examinations are concept driven, no derivation, simple application of equation, explanations needed. Mathematics is used to write down the answer we know is correct http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9zrt__lec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3enwR6e9V9A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZiROWO6iVs

29. ~ Thank you ~