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AESOTOPE
– Asia-Europe Scientists of Tomorrow Programme
The Asia-Europe Foundation is pleased to inaugurate the AEC-SEP with
the AESOTOPE, which was organised in collaboration with the Istituto
Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM
or The National Institute for the Physics of Matter) and with
the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy in Genoa,
Italy, from 26 October to 3 November 2004. .
The programme was held in tandem with the Genoa
Science Festival 2004, a massive scientific event organised in
Genoa, Italy, from 28 October to 8 November 2004.
The AESOTOPE was a new project that ASEF conceived under the framework
of the AEC to bring together young scientists from Asia and Europe
(and their teachers) for collaborative learning and intercultural
exchanges.
In brief, the AESOTOPE aims to: |
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Add a new dimension to the AEC initiative and further its long term
objective |
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of promoting
cross-cultural exchanges and collaborative learning beyond the classroom
at high school level between Asia and Europe; |
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Instill in secondary/high
school students of Asia and Europe a greater awareness |
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of the other
region through personal encounters and intercultural experience, and
greater sensitivity to different value systems and viewpoints, as
well as the cultural diversity that engenders these differences; |
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Enhance the
thinking (analysis evaluation, constructive criticism, reconciliation, |
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etc) and social
(communications, interpersonal skills, gender and cultural sensitivity,
teamwork, consultation, etc) skills of secondary/high school students
in Asia and Europe, and to give them some experience studying and
working in different cultural environments. |
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Organisers
of AESOTOPE made an international call for science proposals in early
2004, tapping on national education agencies and science departments
to promote AESOTOPE to high schools, and to officiate applications
for the pre-conference selection of science projects to be represented
at the AESOTOPE.
Participation in the AESOTOPE was solely by invitation. With the help
of the AESOTOPE Committee of Scientific Advisors – a panel of
six eminent scientists who were
specially engaged for the judging of AESOTOPE project entries –
the organisers selected 19 (out of 32) AESOTOPE projects teams from
16 ASEM countries for the programme. Each AESOTOPE team comprised
a teacher-advisor and a maximum of two high school students aged between
14 to 17.
The 19 shortlisted AESOTOPE projects were further grouped into four
themes, namely, “Water”, “Energy”, “Nature”
and “Technology”, and were showcased at the Le Meraviglie
della Scienza (or the “Marvels of Science Exhibition”),
an exhibition at the Genoa Science Festival 2004.
AESOTOPE Awards were specially conferred on three AESOTOPE teams responsible
for the most outstanding science projects to commend their efforts
and to motivate them towards greater excellence in science. The winners
of the AESOTOPE Awards were the “Multi-Functional
Remote Control Disinfection Car” from China, “The
Mediterranean Sea and its Different Stories: Sulla Rotta di Omero”
from Italy, and “Turning
Prawn Pond Sludge into a Fertilizer” from Malaysia.
Apart from participating in the Le Meraviglie della Scienza, student
participants of AESOTOPE engaged in the “Multimedia Classroom
Activity“, taking Physics lessons from CDs produced by the INFM.
Yet another classroom activity came in the form of maths games conducted
under the “Kangeroo Network” – an international
education network from Australia. |
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