8 October 2008

Collaboration between CELS and the Republic of Korea

The Summer of 2008 saw CELS join forces with the Dong-A Academy and the National Science Museum of Korea. During the two week visit to the Republic of Korea, the team (Prof. Gren Ireson*, Dr Seong-hee Kim, Dr Georgina Westbrook, Mark Crowley and Natasha Neale) worked to build links via the Korean Summer Camp programme and demonstrated their hands-on approach to science teaching. Topics including light and colour, magnetism and particle propulsion were presented to over 300 children and teachers. The aim of the visit was for CELS to help introduce a new style of interactive science education to Korea. The science workshops were visited by the Director of the Science Education Team from the National Science Museum, Kyu-Jin Oh, and the Chairman of the Korean Science Centres and Museums Association, Dr Chung-Won Cho.

Introductions were also made to the Director of the LG Science Hall, Kyung-Deok Kim, during a visit to the Science Education Centre at LG, and also to the President of the Korean Science Foundation (KSF), Dr Yoon Chung, during a series of meeting and presentations. The KSF invited the team to present a workshop that was filmed for use on the scienceall.tv website.

Throughout the visit, the team were offered generous hospitality and sampled much of the wonderful Korean culture and food.

*Based at the School of Education, NTU