The Effects of Multiple and Creative Popular Scientific Activities on Rural Students$ Science Learning and Scientific Literacy

Project Details

Description

Educational inequality is always a specific problem in Taiwan. The gap between urban and ruraleducation is getting worse year by year. The difference between high achievers and low achievers in learningperformance was found to be close to 7 grade levels in Taiwan. Due to the M-shaped society in Taiwan,71.5% of students in the rural and remote areas lack educational resources; moreover, these students usededucational resources much less than students in urban areas did. In particular, 12-year compulsory educationlaw resulted in a larger difference between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students. Itbecomes harder for students in rural and remote areas to make success through education. In the future, moremanpower, material resources, and money should be invested for the socio-economically disadvantagedstudents to bridge the gap between both socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students.Currently, many elementary schools are located in rural and remote areas in Taoyuan City. National CentralUniversity is the only public university within this region. Therefore, the faculty members of NationalCentral University will have the responsibilities and duties to help improve the rural and remote education inTaoyuan.Our research team includes faculty from National Central University and National Tsing Hua University,with expertise extending from life sciences to science education. The research team will organize a series ofpopular science activities, including science experiments, science model making, visiting natural ecosystems,science videos, science website navigation, and visiting science education centers. Up to now, a total of 20rural and remote elementary schools in Taoyuan are willing to participate in this research project related topopular science activities. Furthermore, we will use multiple ways such as performance assessment, scienceachievement test, attitudes toward science questionnaire, and working sheet to assess students’ learningperformance in science knowledge, attitudes toward science, and scientific literacy.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/08/1731/07/18

UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Keywords

  • popular science activity
  • rural and remote education
  • science knowledge
  • attitudes toward science
  • scientific literacy

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