The success of China’s efforts to domesticate scientific literacy might be seen by the transformation of studying in its rural areas, the place college students are discovering the fascinating world of contemporary science and know-how. This is the purpose of the “Candlelight Outreach” initiative, a public welfare undertaking launched in 2012 by the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE).
“Candlelight Outreach” volunteers pose for a gaggle photograph with native faculty college students. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
Founded by Sha Youwei, a senior info know-how instructor and member of the CIE Popularization Committee, this system aligns with the National Scientific Literacy Action Plan (2021-2035) and the National Rural Revitalization Strategic Plan (2018-2022), using CIE volunteers to advertise fashionable science education in rural faculties via robotics programming and science experiments.
To date, the initiative has achieved intensive attain, delivering over 450 science lessons to almost 40,000 college students in 192 faculties throughout 99 county-level administrative areas. Beyond these numbers, the undertaking’s core philosophy is to offer a studying atmosphere that encourages software and understanding. By framing classes as issues to unravel, “Candlelight Outreach” is fostering college students’ motivation and confidence.
Volunteers are the center and soul of the undertaking, and are described as passionate “lantern bearers.” Their composition is various: college professors and college students in fields resembling pc science and digital engineering contribute educational rigor; skilled engineers carry trade experience; instructors from science museums supply partaking, interactive explanations; and retired specialists and academics present deep expertise. The major motivation among the many volunteers is a want to present again and cross on their data. One engineer from a Beijing-based tech firm famous discovering better skilled satisfaction in seeing youngsters cheer over efficiently operating code than in finishing a business undertaking.
The most transformative facet of “Candlelight Outreach” is its problem-based studying (PBL) mannequin, which essentially shifts the kids’s notion of studying from a passive process to energetic exploration. This change happens on three ranges. First, it reconstructs the aim of studying, transferring from understanding “what” one thing is to “why” and “how.” By presenting challenges, resembling making a small automotive that may robotically keep away from obstacles, college students are compelled to actively search data as a device for creation. Second, it shifts college students perspective concerning failure away from concern of creating errors to growing the braveness to attempt. Since debugging and structural collapse are regular in programming and constructing robots, college students study that failure is a beneficial step towards success, fostering an important development mindset. Third, it transforms studying away from the person and towards community-minded collaboration. Team initiatives require college students to speak, negotiate and share the collective enjoyment of creation, strengthening their social studying expertise.
The long-term success of this strategy is clear in its sustained influence. During a follow-up go to to Sishui county, Shandong province, in November 2024, continued help from the CIE was confirmed to have generated important vitality. Students have been extremely engaged in the know-how course, with some observing a 3D printing demonstration for 2 steady hours. Crucially, native faculties applied systemic infrastructure upgrades. For instance, Qinbai Primary School transformed a constructing right into a multi-functional know-how middle, added skilled school rooms and created a maker area for normal innovation golf equipment, establishing an entire “learning-practice-incubation” academic chain.
Primary faculty college students have interaction in scientific experiments in Sujiatun district, Shenyang, Liaoning province. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
Similarly, in Sujiatun district, Shenyang, Liaoning province, instructor Wang Jiaguo has turn into a pioneer for the initiative. He adopted the volunteers’ heuristic instructing strategies and utilized the donated assets to ascertain a Science and Innovation Interest Group. He contextualized studying via a undertaking titled “Technology in the Rice Fields,” linking programming and optics to agricultural apply.
Wang’s encouragement has helped the scholars acquire confidence via programming, with one struggling pupil even occurring to win a science innovation award. Now, he shares his practices to drive digital education and empower colleagues, demonstrating how this system’s philosophy helps native educators rework their faculties, and guaranteeing that the seeds of innovation proceed to develop.