National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) is a science center under the Ministry of Education (MOE). A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between NTSEC and Arizona Science Center (ASC) was held on September 17, 2023, opening up new opportunities for cooperation between the two science centers. The MOU was signed by Liu Huoo-Chin, Director General of NTSEC, and Guy Labine, President & CEO of the ASC, and was witnessed by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and Deputy Minister of MOE Ming-Yu Lin. The delegation led by the Governor included the Governor's Chief of Staff Chad Campbell, President and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority Sandra Watson, and Policy Advisor Ian O'Grady also attended the ceremony. In the future, the two centers will also have better collaboration in exhibitions, educational activities, etc., and establish an international platform for exchanges and mutual benefits between the two science centers. It is expected that through the collaboration of resources sharing and personnel exchanges, the two science centers will engage more audiences and foster more scientific and technological talents.
ASC is located in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, it was established in 1984 and it is one of the best-known science centers in the United States. There are more than 300 interactive displays, a planetarium, a theater, and a variety of educational activities, making it one of the most popular local attractions. Due to the rise of STEM education and Maker activities in recent years, the science center also has a Maker space, allowing students to develop their ability to discover and solve problems through hands-on activities.
Since the launch of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines, the MOE has continued to pursue the vision of “unleashing each child’s potential-adaptive talent development and lifelong learning”. STEAM education encourages children to use self-motivated learning and creating, doing things by hand, and developing their ability to solve problems, and it is consistent with the spirit of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines. NTSEC under the Ministry of Education is an important science education center in Taiwan. With the core concepts of exploring, experiencing, and playing with science, there are various exhibitions and educational activities, and interactive exhibits have been developed with diverse themes and interesting science education activities to inspire students’ interest in science and enhance science education in Taiwan. In recent years, the NTSEC has also emphasized STEM, STEAM and Maker issues. It has built the “Prototype Factory” “Maker Space”, the “Tinkering” exhibition area that encourages spontaneous learning and problem solving by hands-on work, as well as updated the exhibition areas of Biodiversity and Human Body Exhibition, and injected the element of hands-on work into the exhibitions. It also organizes a variety of educational activities and science competitions, with the aim of encouraging students to develop cross-disciplinary skills through a variety of themes, and to explore and learn independently through practical work. NTSEC also organizes educational activities and science competitions with diverse themes, hoping to encourage inter-disciplinary learning and independent inquiry and practice. In addition, NTSEC collaborates with the nearby Taipei Astronomical Museum, Children's Amusement Park, and Meilun Park, known as “Taipei Art and Science Park”. These three organizations jointly organize educational and recreational activities to achieve the goal of outdoor education.
During the ceremony, especially invited and enjoyed was a drone show performed by the children from the NTSEC summer camp course "STEM Rotor Drone" to showcase their learning outcomes. It also demonstrated NTSEC's efforts to promote science and technology education.
After the signing ceremony, a tour of NTSEC was organized for the Arizona delegation. They visited the "Semiconductor Pavilion of The Future" Exhibition which was newly launched this summer. Besides the knowledge of science and technology, the exhibition is integrated with artistic elements. This showed that the efforts of Taiwan in fostering talents in the semiconductor industry when they were young, NTSEC and ASC both shared the common goal of promoting popular science among their people of all age groups. In addition, Taipei City and Phoenix are sister cities. The future cooperation will be even closer and can bring greater benefits to science education in both Taiwan and the United States.