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Xi honors two academicians with China’s top science award

Asia/China/12-01-2020/Author and Source: www.xinhuanet.com/

President Xi Jinping presented China’s top science award to Huang Xuhua and Zeng Qingcun on Friday for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, granted award medals and certificates to them at an annual ceremony held in Beijing to honor distinguished scientists, engineers and research achievements.

Xi shook hands with them and expressed congratulations.

Other leaders, including Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, were also present.

Huang Xuhua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is the chief designer of the country’s first-generation nuclear submarines.

Born in Guangdong Province in 1926, Huang later joined a research institute of the former China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, and has been engaged in the research and development of nuclear submarines for about 30 years. He won the Medal of the Republic in 2019 for his outstanding contributions to the nation.

Zeng Qingcun, 85, is a famous meteorologist from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

His theory of numerical weather prediction solved the problems of timeliness and stability in calculating multi-scale weather change processes and is the basis of the global numerical weather prediction technology.

Zeng’s visionary study on global climate change has brought him a host of accolades and international acclaim, including the world’s top prize for meteorological work.

Friday’s ceremony also honored 296 projects, with 46 winning the State Natural Science Award, 65 the State Technological Invention Award, and 185 the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.

Ten foreign experts won the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Premier Li Keqiang extended congratulations to award winners and thanked foreign experts for their support of China’s science and technology development.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it has made brilliant achievements in scientific and technological development, with the past year witnessing a number of internationally leading advances.

Li noted that China is striving to achieve the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in 2020.

The premier stressed the importance of following the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, further implementing the innovation-driven development strategy and accelerating the in-depth integration of science and technology with the economy, in a bid to maintain the economic growth within a reasonable range and promote the high-quality development.

He called for strengthening of basic research as the foundation of sci-tech innovation.

«We will increase financial support and guide social forces including enterprises to increase investment,» Li said, adding that the mechanisms for ensuring funds, evaluating achievements and rewarding talent shall all be optimized.

China will support researchers in concentrating on their work without distractions and create more original achievements by respecting rules and tolerating failures, Li said.

Those who dedicated themselves to the scientific work despite decades of obscurity shall be commended and awarded, he said.

The premier also stressed that sci-tech innovation shall address the urgent needs of economic development and people’s livelihood.

China will accelerate development of key technologies and transforming research achievements to products to help speed up industrial upgrading, he said.

Research and development shall be intensified in major disease prevention and control as well as environmental management, so that more people will directly benefit from technology and innovation, he said.

The premier emphasized the role of enterprises in technological innovation and called for efforts to improve their ability and willingness to invest more in innovation by implementing tax and fee deduction policies as well as respecting and protecting their intellectual property rights.

To expand international cooperation in innovations, Li pledged to facilitate scientists and technicians as well as enterprises from various countries to come to China for exchanges and development.

Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the ceremony, attended by about 3,300 people.

Before the ceremony, Xi and other leaders met representatives of the award winners.

Source and Image: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/10/c_138694644.htm

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China: Tsinghua University unveils research center on big data intelligence

Asia/China/Author: Xinhua/Source: spanish.xinhuanet.com

China’s prestigious Tsinghua University has unveiled its Big Data Intelligence Research Center as part of efforts to push forward the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

The research center, which is coordinated by the university’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence, will focus on the improvement of AI’s theoretical research and big data computing method. Through the interdisciplinary research of data science, cognitive science and social science, the center aims to develop a new generation of people-oriented big data intelligent computing.

Zhang Bo, director of Tsinghua’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence, said the center will improve basic theoretical research of data intelligence as well as promoting integration with industries and fostering international cooperation.

You Zheng, vice president of Tsinghua University, said the center hopes to pool wisdom in AI research and generate theoretical achievements with international influence, contributing to China’s AI development.

Information reference: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/25/c_138421861.htm

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Gender gap narrows but push towards science has lowered wages

By Paul Karp 

Analysis of graduate earnings in Australia shows benefit of a university degree is diminishing

Policies to boost female participation have helped narrow the gender gap in career earnings but pushing students to study science has resulted in smaller pay packets.

Those are the results of a Grattan Institute analysis of graduate earnings and employment outcomes, released on Monday, which found the benefit of having a university degree is actually shrinking.

Female university graduates still earn about $14,000 a year more than women whose highest qualification is year 12, while for men the premium is about $12,500. But the report found that the average earnings premium of an early career graduate aged 25 to 34 had shrunk by 8% for women from 2006 to 2016 and by 6% for men.

The report by Grattan Institute higher education director, Andrew Norton, and fellow Ittima Cherastidtham found that Australia’s immigration – skewed towards skilled migrants – and the uncapping of student places between 2009 and 2015 meant “many more people are chasing the jobs that graduates aspire to hold”.

“Growth in the number of professional jobs has not kept up with demand,” the report said. New professional jobs had “dropped significantly” after the global financial crisis in 2009 and at the end of the mining boom in 2013.

The chief executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson, said there was still a “sizeable wage benefit” for graduates and the premium had only fallen slightly despite the significant expansion of access to higher education.

Male graduates saw their earnings fall by 3% from 2006 to 2016, owing to a decline in full-time work and professional or managerial jobs.

Female graduates saw their earnings rise 4% from 2006 to 2016, outstripped by a 10% increase in pay for women with year 12 as their highest qualification.

The increase in earnings was triggered by an increase in workforce participation by women with children, from less than 70% to more than 75%. The report credited additional paid parental leave and improved childcare subsidies since 2008.

The career earnings gap between the male and female median-earning graduate fell from 30% in 2006 to 27% in 2016. Women narrowed the gap by earning the equivalent of one and a half years’ of pay more across their careers.

“Progress is slow, but as successive cohorts of young graduates have careers that are less disrupted by motherhood, the gender earnings gap will continue to decline,” the report said.

For female graduates big increases in average annual earnings were recorded in nursing (+10%), education (8%), medicine (6%) and engineering (3%) – with pay increases in industries dominated by public sector employment leading the way.

Pay went backwards for female graduates in the humanities, science, information technology and law, all down 2%.

For male graduates, only those with education degrees saw a significant pay rise (+7%), while big declines were recorded in law and commerce (-7%), science (-6%) and information technology (-3%).

Engineering, law and medicine graduates remain the highest paid.

Both male and female science graduates face difficulties finding managerial/professional jobs. In 2016 more than 40% of science graduates were employed as labourers, in sales, administration and services or trades, which are less likely to use their qualification.

Only those with humanities qualifications have equivalently low rates of employment in managerial/professional jobs. Nursing, education and medicine all had rates of 90% or more employed in managerial/professional jobs.

The report said the rate of unemployment or under-employment four months after graduation grew from 15% before the global financial crisis in early 2008 to its highest-recorded level of 31% in 2014.

Evidence from previous economic downturns showed there “will be a long-lasting impact on the earnings prospects of early-career graduates”.

But it predicted that the “worst has passed” – because although “new graduates are still less likely to get a full-time job than a decade ago … their prospects are improving”.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/16/gender-gap-narrows-but-push-towards-science-has-lowered-wages

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Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?

By: Emily Hanford.

Teacher preparation programs continue to ignore the sound science behind how people become readers.

Our children aren’t being taught to read in ways that line up with what scientists have discovered about how people actually learn.

It’s a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, more than six in 10 fourth graders aren’t proficient readers. It has been this way since testing began. A third of kids can’t read at a basic level.

How do we know that a big part of the problem is how children are being taught? Because reading researchers have done studies in classrooms and clinics, and they’ve shown over and over that virtually all kids can learn to read — if they’re taught with approaches that use what scientists have discovered about how the brain does the work of reading. But many teachers don’t know this science.

What have scientists figured out? First of all, while learning to talk is a natural process that occurs when children are surrounded by spoken language, learning to read is not. To become readers, kids need to learn how the words they know how to say connect to print on the page. They need explicit, systematic phonics instruction. There arehundreds of studies that back this up.

Source of the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/opinion/sunday/phonics-teaching-reading-wrong-way.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEducation&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection

 

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How Minecraft is becoming the foundation of a generation’s computer science education

By: CHAD SAPIEHA

Minecraft: Education Edition will be one of the most popular modules at Hour of Code events around the world this week.

Like many adults, Benjamin Kelly didn’t initially get the global Minecraft phenomenon, which has seen millions upon millions of kids investing endless hours exploring and creating within a blocky virtual world. Eventually he came around.

“I consider myself a late adopter,” says Kelly, who teaches technology at Caledonia Regional High School in New Brunswick. “But the students’ passion for the game was unyielding. I adopted Minecraft mainly because of that.”

By “adopted” he means he not only began playing it himself but also brought the game into his classroom. In addition to the 120 million-plus copies of the consumer-oriented version that have been sold since the Swedish-made mining game launched in 2011, Microsoft Corp. has sold more than 2 million Minecraft: Education Edition licenses specially designed to help kids learn to code.

Once he started poking around the game he began to see its educational potential. “It offers community,” he explains. “Minecraft is so popular it’s a culture. And by adding the recent powerful coding connections to the game Microsoft has created the ideal computer science education environment.”

Minecraft: Education Edition allows kids to command an agent within the game using computer code, sending it off to perform actions such as mining, harvesting, or building while the player continues doing whatever he or she likes. It’s designed to provide a familiar and accessible environment in which to introduce kids to some of the core concepts of computer science while keeping things fun and creative.

“I’ve seen examples where coding has caused the agent to build entire cities with random building heights all while the student continues to explore the game,” says Kelly.

Once he began using Minecraft in his classroom there was no turning back. Kelly went on to become a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert and a Global Minecraft Mentor. He was recently named New Brunswick’s Inspirational STEM Teacher of the Year for 2017.

Minecraft may be the single best educational tool available to support inclusion, universal design for learning, a wide variety of curriculum, and, most importantly, 21st century skills and competencies needed for successful lives and careers,” he says.

Kelly is just one of thousands of teachers now using Minecraft: Education Edition, and he’ll putting it to work again this week as part of the Hour of Code, a series of more than 100,000 teacher-planned educational events taking place in over 180 countries, with 3,000-plus events registered in Canada alone. Educators can choose from hundreds of ready-made tutorials sorted by grade and topics, many with prepared teacher notes. The student-led Minecraft module is, unsurprisingly, among the most popular of these programs.

Cam Smith, a spokesperson for Microsoft in Education Canada who has spent his entire career leveraging technology as a teaching aid (he built his first computer when he was 15), isn’t surprised that kids gravitate towards Minecraft as a portal to learning about computer science. He says nearly 70 million people have used Minecraft tutorials to understand the basics of coding.

Minecraft is a great first step into coding,” says Smith. “It’s an open sandbox environment that is already beloved by students of all ages, genders, and backgrounds around the world. It’s a powerful validation that coding can be a truly creative pursuit for students.”

But are kids actually learning anything by playing Minecraft in the classroom? Smith is convinced they are.

“I’ve seen first-hand the power of how a gamified learning approach to coding ignites curiosity and passion within students,” he explains. “I’ve spoken to educators and have seen students learn to code using Minecraft in classrooms across the country. Complimentary to learning to code, Minecraft: Education Edition helps kids with teamwork by building worlds together.”

Smith’s job has given him opportunity to see how Minecraft not only helps students learn about computer science, but also geography and architecture as kids recreate real world replicas of schools, provinces, and cities. He even once observed students building a river in Minecraft to study fish conservation.

And he’s looked on, satisfied, as Minecraft has nudged quiet students out of their shells. “I’ve seen Minecraft: Education Edition be an incredible tool for students to stand out where they might not be as vocal in the classroom,” he says. “Their work shines through building confidence and an interest in STEM learning.”

As a teacher, Kelly has seen these sorts of occurrences first-hand, too. He believes that Canadian universities are now being flooded with students in computer science and engineering who cut their coding teeth via Minecraft. He thinks even those who don’t go on to study STEM subjects benefit from spending time with Minecraft in the classroom.

“As our world becomes more and more globally competitive and robots take over countless careers, creativity will be a badge for employment,” he explains. “Minecraft is a giant sandbox only limited by the player’s creativity while at the same time fostering the growth of creative ability. The 21st century competencies will win careers moving forward in a world where knowledge is just a mobile device away. Computer science education – and Minecraft: Education Edition – prepare our students today for that future.”

Source:

http://calgaryherald.com/technology/gaming/how-minecraft-is-becoming-the-foundation-of-a-generations-computer-science-education/wcm/f18131f0-a3d4-4d78-a758-2794077de785

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Lancaster education leader saw mold, leaks, lack of computers in poor SC schools

While Lancaster County is building new schools, school districts in other areas of the state face leaking roofs, mold and the inability to provide technology for students.

It’s a comparison Jonathan Phipps, superintendent of the Lancaster County School District, can’t help but see. Phipps, who worked in Lancaster schools for 19 years, came back to Lancaster this year after three years leading Abbeville County School District.

In Abbeville, a rural county with a population of about 25,000, Phipps said he saw leaking roofs on high school buildings older than 60 years. He said the district often has to test for mold and has gyms with no heat or air conditioning and warped floors. Phipps said the district also doesn’t have resources to introduce students to technology or offer programs beyond the basics.

“If I had never gone to Abbeville for three years as a superintendent, I probably wouldn’t have understood the difference,” he said. “It’s disheartening to know where a child lives determines what type of education they are going to receive.”

Court decision

In November, the S.C. Supreme Court closed a 24-year-old case involving a lawsuit filed by more than 30 poor, rural school districts from across the state, including Abbeville County, which has about 3,000 students. The districts sued the state in 1993, arguing they did not have the money or resources to provide children with a quality education.

A 2014 ruling found the state was not providing all children with a “minimally adequate” education. With that decision, the Supreme Court began overseeing legislative efforts to develop policy.

The court defined “minimally adequate” as having adequate and safe facilities where students learn to read, write and speak English, receive education in math, physical science, economic and political systems and vocational skills.

The state formed the Education Policy Review and Reform Task Force, chaired by House Speaker Jay Lucas. The task force included representatives of the plaintiff districts, legislatures and business and education leaders. Phipps provided a testimony.

The task force’s 2015 finding led to passing six bills related to improving education in poorer districts, according to the S.C. House of Representatives.

The state also established additional funding to address retention and recruitment of teachers in rural districts, bus driver shortages, technology upgrades for plaintiff school districts and assess facilities in schools statewide. The state included in its 2017-18 appropriations $55.8 million for capital improvements in districts with poverty rates of 80 percent or higher.

“We’ve done a lot of appropriation work to make sure school districts have what they need,” said Caroline Delleney, spokesperson for the office of the speaker of the House.

The recent decision ends the court’s role as a supervisor over efforts to improve education that stem from the case, said Ryan Brown, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Education. Brown said some school district leaders hoped the court would continue to oversee efforts by the General Assembly and hold them to a deadline to improve schools.

“The General Assembly has shown they are making an effort, and I think that will continue,” Brown said. “While ‘minimally adequate’ may be the language in the law, I believe everyone in the state, the legislature, our agency and districts are aiming well beyond that.”

Lucas wrote in a prepared statement: “The Supreme Court’s recent decision to dismiss the House from this case does not change our members’ commitment to our state’s children and teachers. Although more legislative initiatives and updated funding formulas are part of the House’s plan for continued improvement, the General Assembly can now focus solely on our children’s education needs rather than compliance with the arbitrary standard set forth in the Abbeville lawsuit.”

More needed?

Phipps said he does not believe enough has been done to address problems in poorer districts like Abbeville. He said even though Abbeville students perform well in academics and had a higher graduation rate than the 2016 state average, the district lacks proper facilities, does not have funding for programs and cannot offer an equal exposure to technology for students.

“They are doing so much with so little,” Phipps said. “I fell in love with Abbeville. The people there were incredible. They are such a proud group in their community, but the schools were absolutely pitiful with their facilities.”

Phipps said seeing those conditions offers perspective about what can happen in districts with a larger tax base like Lancaster County, where residents approved $199 million to build new schools and support technology upgrades.

“I’m so excited folks here are so supportive of public education, but I look at that and kind of have this sick feeling, knowing the folks I left last year don’t have anything close to this,” Phipps said.

Abbeville, and many other rural, poor districts, struggle to meet state mandates, such as online testing, Phipps said. He said it took Abbeville weeks to test students online using limited resources.

“State legislatures and the Department of Education are notorious for passing laws that I refer to as ‘unfunded mandates,’” he said. “You see the frustration in the districts like Abbeville.”

Phipps said the state put money into evaluating how ready districts were to provide testing online for all students.

“The money the state has spent, in my opinion, was more of an evaluation tool to see if the districts really were in need instead of actually helping the districts,” he said.

Statewide differences

Phipps said the money set aside for facility maintenance and other needs does not go far and more needs to be done to ensure funding is equal across school districts.

“So much of our funding and the way we operate is different from different areas of the state,” he said. “In a perfect world, the funding would be the same. Statewide, our funding is not where it should be.”

At $2,425 per student, South Carolina is not fully funding the base student cost under state law, something that affects every school district. The fully funded base student cost is $2,984 per student.

The state education department has included $278 million in its 2016-17 and 2017-18 appropriations to increase funding for the base student cost to $2,425 per student.

Phipps said it is going to take educators speaking up to make a difference.

“The mindset of teachers is, we put our kids first and do whatever we can to make them successful. That’s not exactly what our legislatures do,” Phipps said. “I have yet to hear anybody make the argument that the funding is adequate.”

Amanda Harris: 803-329-4082

Indian Land High School freshman Zoiah Aikens, 14, left, and sophomore Imoni Gordon, 15, right, complete an assignment using computers. Lancaster County School District Superintendent Jonathan Phipps said technology is not a given for rural districts like Abbeville, which he led for three years. Amanda Harris aharris@heraldonline.com

Source:

http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/education/article193342464.html

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Angola: Minister Defends Dialogue With Universities

Angola/ November 20, 2017/Allafrica

Resumen: El diálogo con las universidades es una importante fuente de consulta, reflexión y debate para la toma de decisiones sobre la definición de políticas del sector, dijo el jueves en Lubango la ministra de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, Maria Sambo.

The dialogue with the universities is an important source of consultation, reflection and debate for the decision-making regarding the definition of policies of the sector, said Thursday in Lubango, the minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria Sambo.

The official, who was speaking at the opening of the IV Forum on Higher Education in the Country, promoted by the Association of Angolan Private Institutions of Higher Education (AIESPA), considers it essential the dialogue between the actors of the higher education subsystems (public and private) , as well as national systems of science, technology and innovation, to achieve improvements in quality.

She said that society recognizes the importance of private higher education institutions, since public universities only absorb one-third of the candidates who enter that subsystem in the country.

 Maria Sambo stated that the motto of the forum «Training, innovation and employability as a factor of competitiveness» refers to several convergent dimensions of higher education, since training without the use of science and scientific research amputates the labor market and consequently compromises individual and institutional competitiveness.

The two-day forum and covers themes such as «Relevance of the role of quality higher education in sustainable development», «Statute of the teaching career», «Tuition and funding in higher education», «Institutional development plan», «Semi-face-to-face teaching», among others.

Fuente: http://allafrica.com/stories/201711170304.html

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