General Information about NICE Symposium -

Introduction

The original idea of the Network for Inter-Asian Chemistry Educators (NICE) was initiated by Professor Choon H. Do from Korea, Masato M. Ito from Japan, and myself from Taiwan during the International Conference on Chemical Education (ICCE) in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2004.  The purpose of the NICE symposium is to bring chemistry educators together to share research and practical experiences in the area of chemistry.  In particular, students from Asian countries face high exam pressures for entering high schools and universities.  Questions that we considered as very important issues in chemistry education are — how teachers develop their pedagogical content knowledge for teaching chemistry; how they inspire students’ creative and critical thinking in learning chemistry; how they stimulate students’ interest by providing hands-on activities; and how they develop students’ inquiry skills.  We, therefore, decided to hold a symposium every other year (to avoid this overlapping with the ICCE) in Korea and Taiwan.  In 2006, we had the first one in Seoul in conjunction with the ICCE organized by Professor Do, where 18 papers were presented, six from each organizer country. We (three initiators plus Professor Masahiro Kamata, Professor Chin-Cheng Chou, and Dr. Jing-Wen Lin) had a tentative idea in Seoul and then we followed it up to prepare the 2nd NICE symposium in Taiwan.  This year’s symposium is going to have four plenary lectures, 27 oral presentations, 16 posters, and two demonstrations.  Participants include 16 from Japan, 18 from Korea, one from Hong Kong, two from China, and many from Taiwan.  A wide range of topics in this symposium are from technology, curriculum, conceptual learning, problem solving, scientific attitude, web-based learning, modeling activities, public understanding of chemistry, and small-scale experiments.   In particular, we have organized two special exhibitions: National Museum of Natural Science and National Institute for Compilation and Translation (for chemistry curriculum and textbooks). 

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the National Science Council for providing us financial support and Taiwan New Japan Chemical Corporation for donating souvenirs for the participants.  Also, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the three co-chairs (Professor Do, Ito, and Kamata), advisory committee, reviewers for the proposals, and task group members for the symposium.  In addition, special appreciation goes to Dr. Jing-Wen Lin and Miss Hsiu-Yi Chao for their great help during the past few months. Thank you all for your contributions to the symposium and hope you enjoy the program. I look forward to your continuing support and participation in the NICE.

Symposium Chair,

Mei-Hung Chiu

July 24, 2007