Guiding and Cultivating Scientific Interest: Starting from Childhood to Adolescents | Science | Interest
Youth is the starting stage of life. Children are always curious about the world, with unlimited imagination and a strong thirst for knowledge. Rich and interesting scientific knowledge, such as the universe, the origin of humanity, the animal world, mechanical principles, and even basic knowledge of life, can not only answer children's doubts about the real world, many things and objective phenomena in real life, but also enable them to learn knowledge and gain happiness through observation and thinking, further stimulate their love for science and reverence for science, and cultivate their life dreams.
The starting point of scientific research often stems from the curiosity of scientists to explore the mysteries of nature. Caring for curiosity and stimulating the scientific interest of young people can help us better cultivate a reserve of scientific and innovative talents. China has always attached great importance to science education for young people. Especially in recent years, various regions have continuously built innovative science popularization education bases, launched a series of rich and diverse science popularization activities, and continuously improved the level of science popularization education services. For example, in May of this year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences arranged more than 100 research institutes to hold the "Public Science Day of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" for the public, with the theme of "meeting science and foreseeing the future". More than 500 science popularization activities, more than 160 science popularization lectures, and more than 50 academicians interacted with the public online and offline, which were welcomed by teenagers and parents. This summer, major science museums and museums have launched cutting-edge technology exhibitions, wonderful astronomical nights, handicraft classes and other popular science activities, allowing young people to experience the charm of scientific exploration up close through visits, lectures, and interactive experiences; Many primary and secondary school organizations carry out summer research activities, leading students to go deep into research institutes and intelligent workshops, and intuitively experience the changes brought by technological innovation to people's production and lifestyle. At the recently held 2023 World Robot Conference, many teenagers actively participated in robot design competitions, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses in practice and competition, and enhancing their scientific exploration abilities. On the Internet platform, more and more popular science bloggers share scientific knowledge in their own fields with people in the form of short videos or live broadcasts. These popular science videos are often popular and interesting because of their professional expression. These science popularization education activities organized by schools, society, and research institutions not only effectively attract young people, cultivate and enhance their interests and scientific literacy, but also create an environment and atmosphere of caring for, loving, and advocating science throughout society.
How to cultivate more scientific youths? We also need to continuously innovate the forms of science popularization, create high-quality science popularization products and public science popularization services that are suitable for the cognitive and interest points of young people of different age groups. Family, school, and society should all pay attention to the interests of current teenagers, encourage their curiosity, thinking, and exploration, combine scientific knowledge with daily life, and combine education with entertainment and learning with fun, so that teenagers can learn knowledge and fall in love with science in more scenario based, experiential, interactive, and immersive science popularization education activities.
Interpretation of this issue: Chen Ruihai, commentator of CCTV