The International STEM Education Suzhou Forum was held at Soochow University on May 30.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is a term used to group together these academic disciplines, a new educational concept welcomed by many countries.
Professor Zhang Xiaohong, vice president of Soochow University, said STEM improves competitiveness in science and technology development. It’s hoped that participants to the forum can explore the educational ecology centered on STEM and make it an effective way to promoting education reform and cultivating international competitiveness.
Wu Suhai, deputy director of the Department of Foreign Expert Services at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that it is necessary to learn from the international STEM experiences and develop an innovative educational concept that considers characteristics of Chinese students and accords with China’s national conditions.
Professor Georgios Sergiadis from Greece, an expert in telecommunications and biomedical engineering, said STEM talents, especially those self-driven and productive researchers, are in great shortage although the global technology innovations are changing with each passing day.
He said that STEM should be carried out earlier in the education system with emphasis on practice. Meanwhile, social media platforms should also introduce more stories about researches and scientists to the public so as to enhance the awareness of STEM. Furthermore, people should be open-minded to trials and errors in the process of promoting STEM.
The forum also held the award ceremony of the 3rd Intercultural Communication Competence Competition (University Group). The competition kicked off in last November and attracted participants from 800 universities in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and metropolises. A team from the Shanghai Institute of Technology won the championship in the final contest among 50 contestants.
(Source:english.jschina.com.cn)
