The Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), also well known by the local community as the Science Island, was selected to National Base for Sci-Tech Popularization as a recognition for its outstanding performance in increasing public scientific engagement and understanding.
Our diversity makes us a natural place to popularize sci-tech
Science Island is born to be an exceptional base for Science Popularization by its natural environment, big science facilities and its people with different disciplinary background.
It is not difficult to imagine the distinctive environment of HFIPS out of its another name Science Island. Yes, it's true. The integrative CAS institute is located on a peninsula with a wonderful lake alongside. Its unique research campus offers an almost perfect event place, since you are here it always keeps you in touch with nature particularly for the public-orient events.
Except for its environment, the island is home to two under-operation big science facilities and one under-construction facility. Those giant and extremely complex machines could be an ideal demonstration about what is big science. For the public, if you have a lab tour on the island, you see it, you hear it and you even touch it. Watch closely the science facility on-site could help people understand and feel science from different perspectives.
So far, there are nearly three thousand FSA working on this island. They hold different positions. But for science popularization, they work in one group. They participate in daily routine and take their role in preparation for annual big scientific popularization events. They propose brilliant ideas about how to plan scientific popularization events; they put their expertise across multi-discipline into scientific curriculum design and practice; They show, in their own way, the public how they do science.
What we do in the past is what we continue to do in the future
Hefei Modern Science Museum is one of HFIPS’S departments that operates whole scientific popularization on the island. They manage the daily routine of scientific popularization and also plan, launch, organize several big events throughout the year.
Science Island daily routine for scientific popularization includes school programs for students at all grades, scientific models making for some exhibitions, leading lab tour for the public, scientific video producing. Science Island has more than 350,000 public visitors since the establishment of Hefei Modern Science Museum. And our dynamic and diverse volunteer group has been growing into a big one with over sixty people.
Its selection to National Base for Sci-Tech Popularization is not only a recognition for HFIPS’ excellence of the past days in increasing public scientific engagement and understanding, but also a support on what it can do in future.
Contact:
ZHAO Weiwei
Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (http://english.hf.cas.cn/)
Email: annyzhao@ipp.ac.cn