Outreach in Taiwan Day 3: Quiz
In Jacqui Kao’s article “Science transcends cultures in Taiwan” she expresses the importance of showing the informal side of science to Taiwanese students, who are likely to experience academic pressures earlier in life than their kiwi counterparts. Each year at the Madam Curie camp, the Otago team holds a quiz intended to show just that.
“It’s a quiz- but it’s a fun quiz” Dave Warren explains to a packed hall of students, while standing in front of a projected image of himself riding a drift trike. The quiz commences with a combination of heavy chemistry and light trivia; “What is the total number of atoms in 13 molecules of potassium dichromate?”, “Who directed the Lord of the rings?”.
Within three rounds, the pretense of an academic competition is all but lost, and students are openly sharing answers, laughing, and teasing the outreach team. I spot Taieri high school students Savannah and Jinaya helping the surrounding students with the NZ trivia questions.
In addition to the informal elements of the quiz, the team has incorporated a Taiwan-specific cultural element: the students must write a poem about chemistry in couplet form. In the following video, Jacqui Kao explains the couplet form, and the significance of its inclusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lel4EsOKHA
This blog will be updated periodically as the camp progresses, but you can also keep up with the team on facebook, twitter, youtube, and Instagram at the following URLs
Otago chemistry outreach page: https://www.facebook.com/chemotago/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvEnYDv1AdrA016_E86Fj0w
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chemotago
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chemotago/
Outreach in Taiwan Day 2: Aspire
The Otago chemistry outreach team has arrived at the Aspire resort where they’ll be lodging for the duration of the 2018 Madam Curie Science Camp. The camp is an annual event that gathers 144 of Taiwan’s brightest high school students together to participate in science workshops, hear talks from lauded academics (this year’s lineup includes 2 nobel laureates), and to be exposed to different cultural approaches to science communication (that’s us).
The role of the Otago team is, broadly, to expand the students’ understanding of what science is. Each year the team holds a chemistry quiz, but incorporates cultural questions and creative challenges. Each year the team facilitates a hands-on experiment- but the experiment takes place outside the lab. Their is an international preconception that science is a formal, sterile practice- and that preconception is harmful to privileged and underprivileged students alike.
You can take a peak into the outreach team’s travels (and their nightly homework club) at the following youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ13N1I2Jh0&t=2s
This blog will be updated periodically as the camp progresses, but you can also keep up with the team on facebook, twitter, youtube, and Instagram at the following URLs
Otago chemistry outreach page: https://www.facebook.com/chemotago/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvEnYDv1AdrA016_E86Fj0w
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chemotago
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chemotago/
The outreach team stops by Taipei Maru theme park en route to the Aspire resort
Outreach in Taiwan Day 1: Arrivals
Yesterday, 17 members of the Otago Chemistry outreach team reunited in Taiwan to prepare for the Madame Curie Science Camp, taking place in Taipei. This is the team’s third year attending the camp, and the first in which all their luggage has arrived in the correct country. Third time’s a charm.
The team spent their first day staying at the inner-city Finder’s hotel, and soaking in the sights and smells of Taipei, before traveling south to the Aspire resort where they will be staying alongside over one hundred high school students and their helpers for the duration of the camp.
You can get a taste of the team’s first day in Taipei through their vlog here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6kIW0p6Bis&t=1s
This blog will be updated periodically as the camp progresses, but you can also keep up with the team on facebook, twitter, youtube, and Instagram at the following URLs
Otago chemistry outreach page: https://www.facebook.com/chemotago/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvEnYDv1AdrA016_E86Fj0w
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chemotago
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chemotago/
Members of the Otago Chemistry Outreach Team reunited in Taipei to attend the Madame Curie Science Camp 2018
Outreach in Taiwan
We have worked closely with the Madam Curie High School Chemistry Camp in Taiwan since 2016 and will be returning again this year. This camp is aimed at high achieving science students from Taiwan to engage them with chemistry in a variety of aspects. Our role is to run hands on chemistry activities and this short video was made during our 2016 trip when we took a workshop about tough-gels to share with the students and teachers attending the camp.
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