STEM 2012 - the 2nd STEM in Education Conference

STEM2012 Keynote speakers

Academician Wei Yu (PHD)
Academician of CAE, Director of Breach of Electronic and Informatical Division, CAE
Wei Yu, Academician of CAE, Director of Breach of Electronic and informatical Division, CAE, has a doctorate in Electronic Engineering from Aachen Technical University, Germany. After graduating from Nanjing Institute of Technology in 1965, she became a research fellow in the Institute of Electronics, NIT. She was selected as the one of the first groups to undertake further study in West Germany at 1979, becoming the first woman PhD in New China. After she returned to China she founded the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Laboratory of Molecular and Biomolecular Electronics (LMBE) in Southeast University. From 1984 to 1993 she was the Director of LMBE and President of Southeast University. She has received honorary degrees from nine universities outside Mainland China .

During her long career as a teacher and researcher in electronics, her significant achievements included the development of bioelectronics and grounding molecular and biomolecular electronics. She also made important contributions to the reform of higher education and distance learning in China during 1993-2002 when she was the vice-minister in Ministry of Education.

Since 2001 Wei Yu has founded a new interdisciplinary research – the Science of Learning, the frontier area of Mind, Brain and Education in China – bridging neuroscience and education. At the same time she introduced Learning by Doing an inquiry–based approach to science education into China. In 2004, she won the Special Contribution Award issued by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and was named “60 Women Contributing to the 60 Years of UNESCO". Based on her contribution to Learning by Doing in 2006 she was awarded the international PuRkwa prize for innovative practices in science education. In 2007/8 she chaired the committee revising the National Standard of Science Education in Primary Schools in China, which were presented to ministry of education at the end of 2009. She was the top 1 prizewinner of the first grade prize for teaching achievements of course reformation of national elementary education in 2010.

Keynote Speech for STEM2012

Title:Promoting Neuroeducation as a Trans-disciplinary Field

Professor An Baosheng
Before 2006, professor An has contributed to education information. He was honoured as The Dean of Beijing Normal University Academe for Education Information and Network Technology (2001-2005); The Vice Dean of National Research Centre of Distance Education for Teachers (2002-2005); The member of Expert Committee for National IT Education for Teacher (2002-2005); The Advisor on Education IT for of Beijing Academy of Education Sciences (2002-2005).

From 2006, his works have been concentrated on educational research of engineering and technology. Professor An had directed the foundation of School of Engineering and Technology at BNUZ. The school has been cooperated with AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China) in Zhuhai and built lab system which core is three national level laboratories on production design and detection and biology. His group and lab systems have important role in STEM research. The investigations of STEM ‘5L’ teaching method had been succeeded. Professor An is invited as a member of STEM2012 conference program committee.

Keynote Speech for STEM2012

Title:Investigations of STEM '5L' Teaching Method

Professor Kar-Tin Lee (PhD)
Professor Kar-Tin Lee is Head of the School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Prior to this she worked at The University of Melbourne, Australia and in Hong Kong. She has extensive ICT in education, online learning and leadership experience.

More recently, Professor Lee has gained recognition for a well-established expertise in the STEM in Education field. During 2010 she represented the Vice Chancellor of QUT on the Australian Higher Education Forum STEM Working Party. She convened the 1st International STEM in Education Conference held at QUT in November 2010, and is currently an Executive Committee Member of the 2nd International STEM in Education Conference, Beijing. She represents QUT on the Queensland STEM Network Working Group lead by the Chief Scientist. She has played an active role in advocating the importance of integrating the four areas of STEM within the tertiary and school sectors and has widely applied her thinking to her project work.

Throughout her career, she has presented keynotes at international conferences and has led large projects in collaboration with government bodies and industry partners in various countries. She has also been a consultant and advisor to international online learning companies. Her current research and development work takes her to China where she has been working with over 400 teachers from all provinces to integrate the use of technology across the curriculum, in particular, the STEM disciplines. Her work has been instrumental in providing guidance to policy makers on how teachers need to be professionally developed to work productively across the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Her work emphasizes the importance of shifting the balance of learning so that all learners can work together to creatively solve collective world problems.

Keynote Speech for STEM2012

Title:Preparing Future STEM Teachers: a holistic approach

The details of her talk:

Preparing Future STEM Teachers: a holistic approach

Abstract:

Many countries have been developing “new” STEM education programs. The vision implicit in most of these programs is one where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons as all students (and not just those majoring in STEM) apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, and work. Many of the “new” STEM programs place much emphasis on design and problem-solving in “intellectually messy” learning situations that weave together within and between the disciplines. However, a review of the literature indicates this vision is far from being realized; more often than not what is happening is the grafting of “technology” and “engineering” layers onto standard science and mathematics curricula. So how do we get discipline experts from different faculties to work together?

If the vision implicit in most “new” STEM reforms is to be realized then a radical re-think of initial teacher education for STEM teachers is needed. Successful change requires more than good ideas; it requires a coherent set of ideas about change. Therefore, a proposed model for change is presented here and subsumed within this model are guiding principles (and strategies for their implementation) for reforming the recruitment, retention and pre-service preparation of future STEM teachers and policies for implementation.