SES joins Junior Quality Education Expo 2023

To show our staunch support of environmental education in Hong Kong, the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES) took part in the Junior Quality Education Expo held by the parent-child platform MameShare at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in June, delivering speeches, joining an exhibition booth, and exchanging ideas on environmental protection and education with other participants from educational and commercial sectors.

In the opening session of the expo, Professor Eric Tsang Po-keung, Head of SES and Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies and Student Learning) of FLASS, gave a keynote speech on the relationship between environmental protection, science and education. He pinpointed that environmental protection is not just about the teaching of related knowledge and skills, but is also about the cultivation of environmental values. He said, “To have a sustainable future, our education needs to instill in our students a strong sense of environmental conservation. As an institution that trains future teachers, SES shoulders the responsibility to ensure that such a sense can be carried over from generation to generation.”

Professor Tsang, who is also the chairman of Green Power, noticed that the Hong Kong government is encouraging people to use Reverse Vending Machines (RVM) to recycle used containers. While appreciating the effort to use technology to facilitate recycling, the professor reminded the audience – of whom many hailed from the commercial sector – that we should first and foremost make every effort to reduce the use of containers and other unnecessary consumables. “If our consumers build up an awareness to buy things that use fewer containers and packaging materials, society will generate less garbage in the first place,” the veteran advocate of environmental conservation and education said.

He continued to say that, apart from acquiring environmental knowledge through classroom lectures, students should also be encouraged to develop their environmental awareness through multiple learning activities outside classroom. “In terms of teacher training, general studies and science programmes at FLASS have built in many experiential learning components through which prospective teachers can build up their own environmental values.”

Ms Agnes Man Mei-sum, Lecturer II from SES, delivered a talk entitled “Environmental Values Education and our Future” at the expo. She said, “STEAM education, which makes use of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as the channels to teach students subject knowledge as well as higher-thinking and communications abilities, is a core part of SES programmes. Furthermore, SES embraces a STEAM education that not only imparts knowledge and skills in our students, but also nurtures the right attitudes in them. We strive to educate our students to possess the right values and attitudes toward the environment, as a large portion of them will become teachers after graduation. This also meets the needs of 21st century education, a vital part of which is about passing on the right attitude and character.”

In her talk, Ms Man thanked Kowloon City Baptist Church Hay Nien (Yan Ping) Primary School—one of our partner schools in promulgating environmental education—for giving SES a part of its exhibition booth at the expo to display various educational and promotional pamphlets. She also thanked Canossa Primary School for participating in the Quality Education Fund Thematic Network (QTN) project. “Under the QTN project framework, our teachers support Canossa in incorporating STEAM education in its school curriculum. Environment sustainability involves a wide range of knowledge related to STEAM, like the use of solar power in daily life and the conversion of food wastes into fertiliser. Through STEAM education, students of Canossa who acquire the related knowledge will become bearers of the ‘GO green’ concepts,” she said.

SES supports environmental education in local schools on multiple fronts. Our environmental scientists constantly provide advice to administrators of primary and secondary schools about how to achieve Green School standards. In addition, teaching staff from SES are regularly invited to give talks at primary and secondary schools on environmental issues as well as how to obtain good results in various public environmental competitions.