Since the founding of New China 50 years ago, especially since the reform and opening up, China's youth science and technology popularization activities have made remarkable achievements. With school education as the main body, the youth science and technology popularization activities with the participation of all walks of life have developed rapidly and the organization has been gradually improved. The youth science and technology popularization network in large and medium-sized cities has begun to take shape, and the facilities and means are increasingly strengthened, attracting a large number of young people to participate in science and technology popularization activities, and promoting and improving the scientific and technological quality of young people to a certain extent. However, due to the relatively backward educational concept, content and methods of activities, there is a big gap between China teenagers and developed countries in cultivating their innovative spirit and practical ability. In addition, there are still some problems, such as the disconnection between school education and social and family-related education, serious regional differences in the level of science and technology popularization activities, poor financing channels, insufficient investment, inadequate education team engaged in science and technology popularization activities, outdated and backward content of science and technology popularization activities and so on. ?
According to the requirements of the Outline of Science and Technology Popularization from 2000 to 2005 issued and implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology and other nine departments, it is an important task to promote the popularization of science and technology among young people in the new century. In order to standardize and guide the relevant organs, schools, people's organizations, mass media, organs, enterprises, organizations, families and individuals to carry out popular science activities for young people, we * * * jointly with relevant experts, draw lessons from advanced theories and practices at home and abroad, and combine the actual situation of popular science activities for young people in China to formulate the Guiding Outline of Popular Science Activities for Young People in China in 20001-2005. Please all levels of science and technology, education administrative departments, Party Committee Propaganda Department, Association for Science and Technology, and * * * Communist Youth League make plans for popular science activities for young people according to the outline, carry out corresponding activities, and pay attention to giving full play to the strength of schools, society and families to comprehensively promote popular science activities for young people. In the implementation, we can combine local conditions, adjust measures to local conditions, and implement it in stages, encouraging continuous exploration and bold breakthroughs. This program is applicable to children and adolescents aged 3- 18 in China. The "Outline" will be revised by the administrative department of science and technology education according to the actual needs of young people's scientific and technological quality training. ?
I. Objectives and Principles of Youth Science and Technology Popularization Activities
1. What is the goal of popularizing science and technology among teenagers? According to the characteristics of 3- 18-year-old adolescents' physical and mental development and education level, every three years are divided into five age stages, which are divided into four aspects: scientific attitude, scientific knowledge and skills, scientific methods and scientific behavior habits, from shallow to deep, from near to far, from outside to inside, and from image to abstraction. The purpose is to gradually make teenagers understand the development of science and technology and master the necessary knowledge and skills; Cultivate their interests and hobbies in science and technology; Enhance their innovative spirit and practical ability; Guide them to establish scientific thinking and attitude; Help them gradually form a scientific world outlook and methodology. In the implementation of this Outline, the specific objectives to be achieved are:
By stages, teenagers can gradually understand the most basic concepts and processes of science and the basic outline of the scientific knowledge system constructed by them. At the same time, I have a preliminary understanding of science and technology that affects human life and social development; ?
Gradually train young people to have the basic skills to engage in scientific and technological activities in stages; Make teenagers gradually develop scientific thinking habits, master certain scientific methods, and improve their ability to analyze and solve problems by scientific methods; Cultivate young people's rigorous and realistic scientific attitude and scientific behavior habits;
Gradually cultivate young people's interest and hobby in science by stages, help young people gradually establish scientific concepts and spirit, and initially understand the relationship between science and technology and society, so as to lay a foundation for them to creatively engage in or participate in scientific and technological activities and social practice in the future;
2. What are the principles of popular science among teenagers? In order to achieve the above objectives, youth science and technology popularization activities should follow the following principles:
(1) is suitable for all teenagers.
Science and technology popularization activities must be geared to all young people, improve their scientific and technological quality, make everyone develop to a certain extent on the original basis, and help everyone acquire the necessary scientific and technological ability to step into modern economic and social life. Whether inside or outside the school, science and technology popularization activities should respect, love and care for every teenager, and take appropriate measures to meet the needs of teenagers from different regions, different knowledge backgrounds and different acceptance levels, so that all teenagers can participate in science and technology popularization activities. ?
(2) Taking teenagers as the main body?
We should adhere to the principle of taking teenagers as the main body to carry out related activities, pay attention to teenagers' emotions, protect teenagers' self-confidence, respect teenagers' personality, cultivate teenagers' innovative spirit and correctly evaluate the growth of each teenager. Therefore, educators must create various environments conducive to their study and activities, arouse teenagers' subjective consciousness, and encourage them to take the initiative to participate and practice boldly. ?
(3) the combination of basic and practical.
The popularization of science and technology education for teenagers should embody the principle of combining foundation with practice. In the content selection of science and technology popularization activities, it basically includes: compared with the most basic scientific and technological knowledge of teenagers, it has a wide impact on future development; Basic methods of learning and participating in scientific and technological activities; Cultivate the ability to handle things independently; Establish a spirit of cooperation and social responsibility. Practical requirements: Through actual observation, experiment, production and related operational activities, we should strengthen our understanding and mastery of the basic contents of the above-mentioned scientific and technological activities, and at the same time understand the relationship and interaction between science, technology and society. Combining basic knowledge with practicality, they can not only master knowledge, but also apply it in practice. They not only have the initiative and enthusiasm to learn, improve their learning methods, but also cultivate a sense of responsibility for society and have an interest in exploring some major problems facing contemporary mankind. ?
(4) Pay attention to the cultivation of innovative consciousness and ability, and comprehensively improve scientific quality.
Popularizing science and technology among teenagers should make them realize the significance of innovation, innovate their thinking and methods, and maximize their creative potential. While imparting scientific and technological knowledge and cultivating skills, it is more important to master scientific ideas, scientific spirit and scientific methods. Pay attention to the cultivation and guidance of positivism, logical reasoning and skepticism in activities. In practice, we should start with the phenomena that teenagers are interested in or familiar with, provide them with opportunities to participate in exploration and research, let them practice, collect evidence, sort out, process and apply all kinds of information, and find ways and methods to solve problems. In this process, they can exercise scientific thinking, learn scientific methods, cultivate scientific attitudes, establish scientific ideas, concepts and spirits, and improve their scientific quality in an all-round way. ?
(5) Pay attention to the selectivity of learning.
Due to differences in regions and conditions. The differences in individual knowledge, ability base and hobbies among teenagers, the contents, ways and methods of popularizing science and technology among teenagers should fully respect their selectivity, and the contents should be both basic and selective. Let all regions and all kinds of people participate in appropriate activities, in which everyone's characteristics can be respected and developed to the maximum extent.
Second, the basic content of youth science and technology popularization activities
The basic contents of teenagers' science and technology popularization activities include scientific attitude, scientific knowledge, skills, scientific methods, abilities, scientific behaviors and habits. Namely:
1. Scientific knowledge and skills. It mainly includes six aspects: life science, basic materials science, earth and space science, scientific frontier and high technology, practical technology and history of science and technology. According to the age characteristics of teenagers, every aspect should reflect the general law from near to far, from sporadic to systematic, from concrete to abstract, from phenomenon to essence, from macro to micro. ?
2. Scientific attitude. Scientific attitude is the core content of the target system of teenagers' science and technology popularization activities, which mainly includes basic views on science and technology activities, consciousness, thinking activities and conscious psychological state of science and technology activities and its performance in words and deeds. Most scientific attitudes are characterized by daring to pursue truth, respecting laws and being accustomed to rational thinking, which constitute the most critical part of a person's scientific and technological literacy. This part of the content should be placed in an important position in the educational content of all ages.
3. Scientific method. Scientific method is an important part of the popularization of science and technology among teenagers. This outline mainly includes methods of observation, operation and experiment, methods of participating in inquiry activities, and methods of collecting and utilizing information.
4. Scientific behaviors and habits. Through the popularization of science and technology, teenagers can develop good habits of personal life, study and social activities.
These four parts take scientific attitude as the core, scientific knowledge, skills, scientific methods and abilities as the basis, and scientific behavior and habits as the external signs, forming a comprehensive overall goal. Each part of the content has its own emphasis and is interrelated. The above contents, scientific knowledge and skills are indirect experience for teenagers, mainly learning, which can be mastered through the process of exploration, understanding, consolidation and application; For teenagers, scientific attitudes and scientific behavior habits are more manifested as direct experience, mainly acquisition, which can be formed through active participation, experience, internalization and explicit activities. The scientific method is between the two, which needs to be mastered through the comprehensive application of various activities such as inquiry, discussion and practice. Therefore, in the process of implementing the content and target system of youth science and technology popularization activities, we must pay attention to different contents and targets and adopt different communication methods.
Teenagers of different ages have different educational contents and activities. This "Outline" proposes that popular science activities in these five age stages should gradually increase with the growth of age. ?
Three, the types of youth science and technology popularization activities
There are four kinds of activities to popularize science and technology among teenagers: one is knowledge-based projects focusing on popularizing scientific and technological knowledge, such as energy knowledge and astronomical knowledge; The second is skill-based projects focusing on cultivating specific skills, such as model making, computer making, planting and breeding technology, etc. Third, problem-centered research projects cultivate inquiry ability, such as the study of some animals' living habits and the improvement of crop varieties; The fourth is a comprehensive project that integrates knowledge learning, skill training and inquiry learning, such as local environmental pollution investigation and research, creation and invention.
Teenagers can choose or set up activity types according to the basic contents set in this outline, which can not only take care of teenagers' physiological and psychological characteristics, knowledge level and interest needs, but also reflect regional differences and urban-rural differences according to local conditions; We should not only retain excellent traditional activities, but also encourage them to reform and innovate in order to design new types to adapt to the changing situation; We should not only choose or set up some activities that are closely related to local production and life and conform to the reality of most teenagers, but also pay attention to designing some high-tech activities and innovative activities and conducting experiments in places where conditions permit; You can also carry out some demonstration activities through social organizations to promote the development of local science and technology education activities. ?
To achieve the goal of popularizing science and technology among young people, it is necessary to give them a lively form, so that the majority of young people can easily accept it, actively participate in it and expand their gains. Over the years, China science and technology popularization workers have accumulated rich experience in the form of popular science activities. Science and technology summer (winter) camp, "small spark plan" (small planting, small breeding, small processing, small investigation, small reform, small invention, small consultation, etc. ), science and technology lectures, proposition challenges, and science and technology days (weeks and months) are mass activities; Interest groups, lectures on popular science, visits, training, subject competitions and science and technology competitions are special activities; Science and technology wall newspaper, science and technology books and periodicals reading, small invention (creation) exhibition, science and technology experiment demonstration room, science and technology video, science and technology website, etc. They are all good means of scientific and technological activities, and these forms of activities should continue to be vigorously promoted and popularized, and comprehensive innovation should be actively given.
Science and technology popularization workers and teenagers should give full play to their initiative in choosing the types and forms of activities, improve their innovation ability and actively promote the healthy development of science and technology popularization activities.
Four, the government and relevant social parties should actively support the popularization of science and technology among young people.
Popularizing popular science activities among teenagers is a social systematic project, which needs the joint efforts and active cooperation of relevant government departments, schools, all walks of life, families and teenagers themselves, and persists for a long time.
1. Give full play to the role of various communication channels. In promoting the popularization of science and technology among teenagers, we should give full play to the functions of education, training and mass media to meet the special needs of the popularization of science and technology among teenagers.
Give full play to the role of schools as the main channel, and actively implement the decision spirit of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on deepening education reform and comprehensively promoting quality education. While doing a good job in classroom science and technology knowledge education, we should also carry out various forms of science and technology popularization activities and implement them as an important part of school education. At the same time, it is necessary to reform the existing content system of scientific and technological activities in schools with the goal of cultivating young people's scientific and technological quality and creativity. It is necessary to organize a group of old, middle-aged and young experts with innovative ideas and liberal arts backgrounds to study the contents of the school's science and technology popularization activities, put forward a model youth science popularization program, and guide the development of various activities.
It is necessary to further play the role of society and family and promote the popularization of science and technology among young people. In promoting popular science activities among teenagers, we should give full play to the role of family education, social education and self-education of teenagers. Parents should support their children to participate in scientific and technological activities organized in and outside the school; Create a good atmosphere of advocating science, pursuing truth and being brave in innovation in the family, and create basic material conditions for the cultivation of children's scientific and technological quality according to the actual situation. Encourage all kinds of social organizations, education, scientific and technological institutions, enterprises and other social organizations and institutions at all levels, actively organize young people to participate in scientific and technological activities according to the spirit of this outline, and disseminate scientific and technological knowledge to young people through training and counseling. Governments at all levels should coordinate science and technology, education and other departments to carry out vocational training related to the popularization of science and technology for young people after graduating from urban junior high schools to meet their future employment needs; It is necessary to vigorously carry out practical agricultural technology training for rural teenagers with low culture and help them embark on the road of rejuvenating agriculture through science and technology as soon as possible. ?
Give full play to the role of mass media, carry forward the scientific spirit, educate young people to advocate science, be objective and realistic, pursue truth, be brave in innovation, oppose feudal superstition, and establish a dialectical materialist world outlook. When spreading science and technology, the mass media should set a serious, meticulous, objective, fair and realistic example with a scientific attitude. On the topic selection of communication content, we should adhere to the principle of paying equal attention to form diversity, science and artistry. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of popular science content on the Internet.
2. Relevant government departments at all levels should create an environment to promote the popularization of science and technology among young people. Creating a good environment by the government is the basic condition for promoting the popularization of science and technology among teenagers. The relevant administrative departments of science, technology and education of governments at all levels should guide and standardize the activities of popularizing science and technology among young people through various pilots, demonstrations, plans and laws and regulations, and resist various social adverse effects such as feudal superstition and pseudoscience that hinder the formation of young people's scientific and technological quality. The administrative departments of science and technology and education at all levels shall, jointly with the propaganda department, the Association for Science and Technology and the Communist Youth League, improve and perfect the supervision system, establish an evaluation system based on the outline, and ensure that the objectives and principles of youth science and technology popularization activities are put in place. In addition, governments at all levels should strive to take effective measures to effectively increase the conditions for the popularization of science and technology among young people and increase investment.
In the case of relatively insufficient government investment, encourage social forces to participate in and support youth science and technology popularization activities.
3 do a good job in the construction of organizational networks, teams and positions, and promote the all-round development of youth science and technology popularization activities. All levels of science and technology, education and other relevant government administrative departments and propaganda departments, as well as the Association for Science and Technology, the Women's Federation, the Communist Youth League and other relevant social organizations, should coordinate and mobilize relevant social forces, accelerate the establishment of a network of popular science activities, including expert consultation, activity organizations, activity information, tutor resource information, etc., and play a synergistic role; Promote the planning, theoretical research and implementation of youth science and technology popularization activities. Improve the scientific and technological literacy of relevant teachers and counselors. It is necessary to establish a quality evaluation and supervision system, strengthen the training, counseling and discussion of teachers and counselors, and increase the content of thinking methods and the law of talent growth. Advocate the application of new theories, methods and new ways in popular science activities. Education, science and technology management departments at all levels and other relevant parties should put the construction of youth science and technology activity counselors, educational science popularization creation teams and science and technology expert volunteers on the agenda and gradually implement them. In the scientific and technological activities inside and outside the school, we should gradually improve the team of scientific and technological teachers and counselors. All localities should put forward specific objectives and effective measures to improve the team according to specific conditions, and gradually organize their implementation. Through mass media publicity, participation in community-related activities, parents' training and counseling, parents can improve their scientific and technological quality, improve their educational concepts, take the lead in learning, applying and emphasizing science and technology in their daily lives, set an example in advocating science and opposing superstition, and actively create a good environment for teenagers to improve their scientific and technological quality in their families.
Further improve the position construction of extracurricular science and technology popularization activities for young people. Science and technology venues, key laboratories, science centers and other facilities have strong popular science functions. Give full play to the functions of existing facilities, spread scientific knowledge, scientific methods and scientific spirit to the vast number of young people through exhibitions, demonstrations, lectures, movies and participation in operations, intuitively introduce the achievements of China's scientific and technological development and its role in improving production development and quality of life, and promote young people's understanding of the relationship between science and technology and society, thus contributing to the scientific quality of young people. Governments at all levels should attach importance to the construction of youth science and technology venues and incorporate them into the overall planning of local urban and community development. Conditional areas can set up science and technology education demonstration sites or science and technology education activity centers in primary and secondary schools respectively to give full play to their radiation functions. Preferential policies should be given to the old, young, marginal and poor areas to promote the construction of the position of extracurricular science and technology popularization activities for local teenagers.