Opportunity to improve the quality of teaching and learning comprehensively
(Baonghean) - From March 10 to 13, the National Science and Technology Competition for high school students, school year 2017 - 2018, Northern region will officially open in Vinh City.
In preparation for this important event, Nghe An Newspaper interviewed comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Director of the Department of Education and Training, Head of the contest organizing committee about the significance and preparation work of the host unit Nghe An.
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| Leaders of the Department of Education and Training awarded the authors who won high prizes at the Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Competition for the 2017-2018 school year. Photo: My Ha |
PV:Dear comrade, although the Science and Technology Competition for high school students has only been implemented for more than 5 years, it has had a widespread influence and is extremely practical in teaching and learning. In Nghe An, how has this competition been implemented over the years?
Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:The Science and Technology Competition for high school students was launched in the entire education sector of the province from the 2011-2012 school year. Although this is a new, difficult field and requires a lot of creativity, after only 5 years of implementation, it quickly became a movement that was responded to by many secondary and high schools in the whole province, a source of many scientific and technical innovations and created many practical marks in competitions at the grassroots, provincial and national levels.
From this activity, every year, thousands of scientific products and projects are implemented by students in the whole province. In the 2017-2018 school year alone, after more than 5 months of launching the contest, 241 projects from 85 units in the whole province were selected to participate in the final round and this was the year with the largest number of participating projects. Most of the projects demonstrated many new scientific ideas; had research skills, proposed quite complete solutions; many projects were practical, highly feasible, creating passion in scientific research, applying lessons into practice and creating a useful playground for middle and high school students in the whole province.
In addition, there are many topics that approach large, general issues or require advanced techniques in university laboratories and research institutes... Thereby, helping to train students' scientific research capacity and showing the connection between high schools and universities. Many scientific topics and presentations of many students have paid attention to applying knowledge learned in class and practical knowledge in real life to scientific research. These are truly meaningful scientific projects in real life, researched from concerns and discoveries through folk experiences, through the desire to improve the work, life and daily study of students.
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| Experiment on waste treatment by students of Cua Lo High School. Photo: My Ha |
PV:It is an honor and also a challenge for Nghe An to be chosen by the Ministry of Education and Training this year to host the National Science and Technology Competition. Up to this point, how has the preparation been carried out to ensure the competition goes smoothly and successfully?
Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:This year is the first time Nghe An has been assigned to host the National Science and Technology Competition for high school students in the Northern region. Although the number of participating units is not as large as the National Phu Dong Sports Festival 2 years ago, the host unit's task is quite heavy, because in addition to nearly 1,000 officials, students and teachers participating, there is also a very large number of machines.
Therefore, in the past time, the Department of Education and Training has proactively advised the Provincial People's Committee and related levels and sectors, and the Department of Education and Training has always received enthusiastic and responsible support. For that reason, although the work is quite busy, up to this point, the preparation work has basically been completed.
Regarding the locations of the opening ceremony, exhibitions, seminars, and student exchanges, they were arranged in reasonable locations to best facilitate the delegations. The organizing committee also proactively introduced places to eat, stay, and sent volunteers to the delegations to create the best conditions for the delegations during the competition.
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| Smart insect catching machine project of Que Phong district students. Photo: My Ha |
In addition to the general preparation for the competition, the provincial leaders and related departments and branches also paid special attention to the 18 projects of Nghe An students participating in this year's competition. Specifically, after the provincial competition, the Department of Education and Training directed the Departments of Education and schools to pay attention to the projects to continue to improve them. The Department also organized work with schools to listen to suggestions on expertise and funding during the implementation process. Based on the synthesis of opinions, the Department proposed to the province for funding support. With the permission of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department invited scientists and experts to give comments, guidance, and advice to the students so that they could complete their products in the best way.
This year, the Ministry of Education and Training continues to select outstanding projects to participate in the international science and technology competition. Therefore, during the direction process, we also require schools to prepare a presentation plan in English so that students can be proactive if they have the opportunity to continue to the next round.PV:It is known that this year's contest, in addition to the number of participating projects being larger than previous years, the contest also has many new features in the organization?
Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:In 2017-2018, the National Science and Technology Competition held in Nghe An had the participation of 34 delegations from provinces and cities from Thua Thien - Hue and some universities with high school training (University of Education, University of Natural Sciences, Hanoi National University of Education and Vinh University). This year, with 249 projects in 21 fields, the number of participating projects is also larger than previous years and many fields have a large number of projects, high competition such as Social and Behavioral Sciences (43 projects), Mechanical Engineering (42 projects), Embedded Systems (28 projects), Biomedical and Health Sciences (19 projects).
In 2018, the competition also had many new features in the organization, especially in the judging process. That is, this year the organization of the jury was arranged in the most objective way to accurately evaluate the participating products.
It is expected that the Organizing Committee will also mobilize many prestigious scientists and members of the jury from the North and the South and will be interchanged between the two regions to ensure objectivity. During the judging process, the authors will draw lots to evaluate the projects (completely random and completely independent).
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| The jury scores the projects at the provincial science and technology innovation competition for the 2017-2018 school year. Photo: My Ha |
PV:Dear comrade, what is the significance of this contest in teaching and learning today?
Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:Fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education in the direction of developing students' capacity is a major orientation of the Party, the State and the Education sector today. Therefore, scientific research activities among students and the Science and Technology Competition for high school students are one of the forms to diversify the method of organizing teaching and learning in schools and through this activity, students discover problems in practice, find ways to solve problems, thereby forming and developing scientific research capacity.Organizing the national competition in the province is an opportunity for Nghe An students to access this activity more widely and deeply. The competition also contributes positively to the team of teachers in schools in innovating teaching methods, promoting the application of knowledge to solve life problems, thereby improving the quality of schools. This is also an opportunity for the whole industry to increase exchanges, learn, share experiences, and promote the image of Nghe An to many friends across the country.
PV:Thank you, comrade!
