Reply on RC1

Over the past three years, the University of North Georgia (UNG) has advanced the goals of the National Science Foundation’s GEOPAths:IN program by strengthening geoscience education for grades 9–12 STEM and Special Education teachers and their students through sustained, hand-on professional development and outreach. Central to this effort was GeoEd, a week-long professional development workshop designed to increase exposure to the geosciences,and build teacher confidence and capacity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. GeoEd engaged teachers through hands-on field experiences, laboratory investigations, and the use of geospatial technologies, all framed within Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and aligned with Georgia state science standards in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. In-person workshops and student programs have demonstrated clear gains in teacher confidence, instructional capacity, and student engagement. However, a critical challenge in educational outreach initiatives such as GeoEd, include long-term sustainability beyond the funding period. To address this challenge, UNG developed a centralized, open-access website that curates and hosts all instructional materials created and developed through the GeoEd workshops and related GEOPAths activities. These resources include standards-aligned PBL modules, lesson plans, GIS and Google Earth exercises, datasets, assessment tools, and implementation guides designed for classroom use. By making these materials freely available, the website removes financial, geographic, and institutional barriers to professional development and enables teachers to revisit, adapt, and share resources as their instructional needs evolve.A defining feature of the hosted materials is their emphasis on inclusive and accessible geoscience instruction. Several activities include accessible versions intentionally designed to support students with a wide range of learning abilities. This approach empowers both STEM and Special Education teachers to integrate Earth Science concepts into inclusive classrooms while maintaining academic rigor and alignment with required state standards. Teachers report increased confidence in adapting geoscience content for diverse learners, expanded use of geospatial technologies, and greater student engagement with real-world Earth system challenges such as climate change, resource management, and environmental hazards.This presentation highlights the design, implementation, and early impacts of this open-access resource hub as a sustainable model for scaling Earth Science education. By extending the reach of professional development well beyond in-person participation, the website supports thousands of students indirectly through teacher use and adaptation of materials. This work demonstrates how partnerships between university departments and K–12 teachers, combined with freely available, high-quality teaching resources, can strengthen the visibility, relevance, and inclusivity of Earth Science in school curricula. Ultimately, this model contributes to building long-term geoscience capacity, fostering scientific literacy, and supporting a more diverse and informed next generation of Earth scientists, educators and citizens capable of addressing global sustainability challenges.

IntroductionThe conventional method for teaching removable partial denture (RPD) design using a pencil drawing on a solid cast has always been the basis for teaching RPD design in most dental schools at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. This does not apply to RPD fabrication technology, as more laboratories have recently adopted more efficient and versatile digital techniques to design and fabricate RPD frameworks.MethodsAt the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, we created a pilot workshop to assess the efficiency of a new approach to teaching RPD design utilizing this new digital RPD technology as a teaching tool for graduate prosthodontics residents. Three first-year prosthodontics residents were enrolled in the workshop, which involved learning the new digital workflow of designing RPD.ResultsThis new teaching approach very successfully achieved its educational goals. The residents reported that the digital RPD teaching approach enriched their knowledge and deepened their understanding of RPD design.DiscussionThe technique garnered significant interest from the students and seemed to also increase their understanding of the steps involved in RPD fabrication as well as the different components of the RPD.

The structure of the higher education market in 2012–2021 in 38 European countries was analyzed using concentration levels and Herfindahl-Hirschman indices based on the number of higher education institutions and their share in the QS World University Rankings, and the number of students. This market in 2021 has a low concentration: the 3 countries with the largest number of higher education institutions (Germany, Ukraine, France) covered about 36% of the market in total; the 3 countries with the largest number of universities in the QS (United Kingdom, Germany, Italy) – 5%; the 3 countries with the largest number of students (Germany, France, United Kingdom) – 37%; and the 3 countries with the largest number of foreign students (United Kingdom, Germany, France) – 5%. Using parametric and non-parametric comparison tests, it was found that although the number of higher education institutions and students does not generally depend on the population’s income level, the number of universities ranked in the QS and foreign students does. The correlation analysis revealed that GDP and GNI, population, and separately the employment and unemployment rates (for ranked universities and foreign students) are important factors that determine the uneven structure of the higher education market. The identified factors formed the basis for clustering countries using Ward’s hierarchical method, which revealed the clear existence of 3 clusters: the smallest of them accumulates the 4 largest European economies with the most ranked universities; the largest (24 countries) is quite diverse, which indicates relatively equal opportunities in the market and its unification. Acknowledgment Tetiana Vasylieva and Artem Artyukhov thank project 0122U000772, and Nadiia Artyukhova thanks project 0124U000545 for carrying out their part of this research.

Earth science education: The current state of play

Educational efforts related to viral hepatitis have the potential to increase awareness and identify chronically infected individuals and can lead to successful vaccination strategies. However, in underserved semirural communities, such as the Korean American community in Killeen, Texas, these outreach activities are lacking. The GanYum (“hepatitis” in Korean) Prevention Project aimed to evaluate thoughts/behaviors, assess vulnerability, and educate Korean Americans on hepatitis B and C. Two outreach events were held at a Korean church and a Korean market (O'Mart) to provide education, screening, and outreach about viral hepatitis. Ninety-six patients were screened at two events. Five patients were found to be positive for hepatitis B surface antigen and were referred to their primary care physicians and the liver clinic at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, Texas. Fifty-one patients (53%) were found to be immune to hepatitis B, and 40 patients (42%) were hepatitis B vulnerable. We demonstrated that the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B in Koreans in our study is similar to the previously documented prevalence (5%). Our educational efforts were successful in changing perceptions regarding the modes of transmission and exacerbating factors of chronic viral hepatitis and encouraged participants to seek care for their liver diseases, if needed. We found that both venues (the church and Korean market) were appropriate to screen and educate participants; churches seemed to have a more engaged audience.

Despite its relevance for understanding environmental, societal, and Earth system challenges, Earth Science remains one of the most marginalized components of Natural Science education in upper secondary schools. International research has consistently shown that Earth Science is underrepresented compared to other Natural Science subjects, both in terms of curricular emphasis and instructional time (King, 2021; Baker, 2017). This underrepresentation has been associated with reduced teacher confidence in understanding Earth systems.In Italy, Earth Science is included in the National Guidelines for Natural Sciences, which are used as a reference framework by schools when designing local curricula. The 2010 Italian National Guidelines (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, 2010) describe Natural Sciences as a set of distinct but interconnected disciplines sharing common competencies. These competencies are focused on observing and describing natural phenomena, understanding the relevance of scientific discoveries, and using scientific language to communicate and discuss scientific issues. Methodological recommendations emphasize inquiry-based learning, laboratory activities, and outdoor education as shared approaches across Natural Science disciplines. However, while the Guidelines identify content areas intended to support competency development, Earth Science topics are described only in broad terms. As a result, these topics are often difficult to interpret and translate into teaching practice, particularly for teachers without a geological background. This difficulty is further amplified by the heterogeneous academic preparation of Natural Science teachers, whose training may include biology, chemistry, geology, or agricultural sciences (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, 2017).To address this problem and support Italian Natural Science teachers lacking specific geological expertise, an Earth Science curriculum for Liceo upper secondary schools was designed. Lesson plans and teaching materials were developed for all Earth Science topics prescribed by the Italian National Guidelines. These materials were subsequently implemented and tested in 12 Italian upper secondary schools. Feedback from participating teachers indicated that the proposed curriculum, teaching plans, and instructional materials represent effective and practical resources. In particular, they were reported to facilitate a shift towards more student-centered, inquiry-oriented, and competence-based teaching practices. Moreover, the materials support the systematic inclusion of Earth Science topics while fostering the development of key scientific and STEM-related competencies. The final versions of the curriculum, teaching plans, and lesson materials were published online as open educational resources and made freely accessible (https://www.didatticascienzedellaterra.distar.unina.it). All materials are available under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International). This allows teachers to freely use and implement the resources in their educational contexts, thereby extending the action research approach initiated by this study.

Specific metrics for the status of US science education indicate that the country is losing its competitive edge on a global scale; among nations, the US ranks 22nd in density of broadband internet penetration and 72nd in density of mobile phone subscriptions, both of which are critical tools for science literacy and likely contribute to our international rank of 48th in quality of math and science education. Even worse, 69% of US public middle-school math students are taught by teachers without degrees or certificates in mathematics, and 93% of public middle-school teachers in physical sciences lack degrees in their subject (NAS 2010). All of these rankings represent indicators of global science leadership. In short, formal science education systems in the US lag behind those of many other countries, and our ability to train the next generation of scientists is at risk (Brewer and Smith 2010). In addition to shortfalls in public schools, US K–12 youth now watch at least 4 hours of television daily, and the average teenager spends a whopping 7.5 recreational hours daily in front of television and gaming screens (NAS 2010) – time that instead could be devoted to doing homework or experiencing the natural world through outdoor engagement. The formal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education metrics for US education are not keeping pace with those of other developed countries and are declining over time. Ecology education is experiencing one of the largest deficits: public schools have cut back on field trips and many K–12 students now experience nature virtually, rather than directly (Louv 2008; Lowman and Mourad 2010). Likewise, many undergraduate and graduate programs are eliminating their natural history programs, sometimes referred to as the "extinction of the ologies" (Lowman and Mourad 2010). In contrast, informal science education (ISE) is now providing a larger compensatory component of STEM education to students as well as to citizens and policy makers. Currently, US museums tally approximately 850 million visits annually, which is more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined (483 million in 2011; www.aam-us.org). Along with these visits, museums are also recording a burgeoning virtual visitorship, with an additional 524 million online visitors in 2006 alone, which has escalated during the past 5 years. In the US, there are over 17 000 museums, whose visitors range from several hundred for a rural museum with a local mission to >8 million annually for larger or national museums (www.aam-us.org); many of these ISE experiences bolster shortfalls in formal STEM education. Natural history museums, with their biodiversity collections and interpretive dioramas, serve as focal points to provide ISE about ecological concepts, including biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, and landscapes. In many cases, K–12 students become inspired by seeing, touching, and working with collections; and increasingly, virtual technologies and social media are becoming important drivers of science education concepts for youth outside of the formal classroom setting. Both undergraduate and graduate students can gain valuable training in science communication and outreach using the public floor of museums and other ISE platforms (Trautmann and Krasny 2006; Lowman and Mourad 2010). Given the declining competitiveness of US science education on a global scale, ISE has become an important pipeline for engaging the next generation of scientists and for contributing to otherwise declining ecological literacy. Of US adults surveyed nationally, <20% possess an "acceptable" level of scientific literacy and a majority have little knowledge of natural science, the process of research, or the results of contemporary scientific investigations, despite the importance of science to both human and ecological health (Field and Powell 2001; Miller 2004). Many ISE institutions are embracing the urgency of providing visitors with hands-on experiences to understand science and especially ecology; such efforts may translate to a healthy community through an understanding of fresh water, pollinators, clean air, agriculture, carbon sequestration, forest products, and myriad other ecosystem services. Educators often suggest "the best way to help the public understand the research process is to involve them directly through hands-on research" (Ucko 2004). Public Engagement with Science (PES) is a term used in ISE circles that emphasizes the growing importance of providing citizens with a better understanding of science as a driver of economics and health; ecology is often a conduit for science understanding, whereby museums foster a sense of wonder that leads to greater science literacy by getting kids "hooked" on science. But more analyses of PES in museum settings – including theoretically based assessments of activities – are sorely needed (Bonney et al. 2009). In my former home state of North Carolina, 39% of 8th graders report they "never or hardly ever" designed a science experiment, and another 29% report doing hands-on science activities only once or twice a month. Teaching methods that were traditional several decades ago – lectures, textbooks, recipes in laboratory sessions –continue to be the norm in science education despite national outcries calling for radical change (eg Brewer and Smith 2010). Soon, science teachers may face additional pressure to incorporate hands-on experiences into their courses. Like those of many other states, North Carolina's revised science standards call for inquiry-based learning experiences emphasizing the Next Generation Science standards. Historically restricted to museums as an outreach activity, ISE may infiltrate the public school classroom, so that "citizen-science" activities originating in museums can be virtually transmitted to classrooms for dynamic new science activities (eg Project GLOBE, Project BudBurst, and iNaturalist.org; see Trautmann et al. 2012; Zoellick et al. 2012; www.yourwildlife.org). Programs such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) have national mandates from Congress to implement citizen science (or some major and transformational capacity of ISE) to reach diverse stakeholders with data streams about North American ecosystems (Lowman et al. 2009). In addition, for states like North Carolina, with large numbers of practicing scientists, the mentoring of K–12 teachers by scientists has the potential to become another pathway for ISE (Lowman and Randle 2009). To keep North Carolina competitive in science (especially given the strength of Research Triangle Park, a huge driver of technology and jobs in the state), public–private partnerships funded a new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences that opened in April 2012. Called the Nature Research Center, it proposed to expand citizen science (ie PES) to diverse stakeholders using four innovative platforms of ISE (Dickinson and Bonney 2012). Drawing upon ecology and especially biodiversity as major drivers (since the museum houses a collection of over three million specimens of organisms endemic to the southeastern US), several ecology-based citizen-science programs were launched with marked success. These programs serve as a case study for integrating real nature and virtual technologies, thereby raising the ecological literacy of museum visitors. Researchers from the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University initiated visitor evaluations to track the success of the different platforms of informal learning that include: (1) citizen-science programs in partnership with local scientists (eg the Belly-Button Biodiversity program [Hulcr et al. 2012] or the "wild life of our homes" project [www.yourwildlife.org]); (2) virtual theater to connect K–12 students directly to environmental scientists working both in laboratories and in the field; (3) public education labs (called iLabs) that illustrate natural science techniques of "how we know what we know" about ecology and natural sciences; and (4) glass-walled laboratories where scientists work in the public eye and answer questions from onlookers about the scientific process. Will ISE platforms succeed in bolstering STEM education for students and visitors? With its myriad educational programs for diverse audiences, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) is proving the success of ISE. Located in San Francisco, CAS's ecoliteracy programs are rooted in science learning, but take the next step to reconnect learners to the natural world and equip them with tools to foster healthy communities through environmental action (eg http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/elizabeth-babcock). For example, the Academy's Teacher Institute on Science and Sustainability engages 3rd- to 5th-grade teachers in a cohort-based, 2-year training program to incorporate sustainability action in their science teaching. Using simple metaphors that make the science accessible, CAS's ocean action programs (hosted near a 200 000-gallon live coral-reef exhibit on the museum floor) acquaint visitors with the causes and mechanisms of ocean acidification, and its impact on coral reefs. Conservation-oriented stories, as well as action steps designed for individuals and families to reduce carbon emissions, are directly woven into the program's message. In addition, CAS has one of the museum world's first glass-walled laboratories, where visitors can "meet a scientist" and children can interact with diverse scientists as role models (Figure 1). Such innovative attempts to strengthen ISE may ultimately inspire the next generation of ecologists. Moreover, expansion of "virtual-plus-real" natural history educational platforms into other ISE institutions – botanical gardens, zoos, parks, and even school playgrounds (eg www.schoolofants.org) – will foster exciting opportunities to improve ecoliteracy, not just for students but also for their parents, for regional policy makers, and for a diverse public who enjoy destinations that offer ecology education in an informal setting. An informal science education (ISE) laboratory at the California Academy of Sciences encourages students and the general public to pose questions to practicing scientists. This interaction also allows visitors to learn how natural history hypotheses are tested by the scientific method. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

&lt;p&gt;Higher education institutions are vested with the responsibility of grooming a generation of&lt;br&gt; youth through providing quality education and skills, matching the requirements of a&lt;br&gt; harmonious, self-reliant and developed society, and values inclined to serve with selfless&lt;br&gt; devotion in whatever capacity they assume and wherever they work. The society at large looks&lt;br&gt; up to the institutions to address their needs through enhancing educational opportunity,&lt;br&gt; maintaining quality, increasing employability, solving community-based problems, creating a&lt;br&gt; pool of human resources, promoting inter-institutional collaborations and maintaining harmony&lt;br&gt; with the outer environment. In order to achieve this, institution formulates action plans for all the&lt;br&gt; operational processes such as admission, teaching, placement, personality development, support&lt;br&gt; services, social responsibility etc. through strategic planning. The perspective plan of the&lt;br&gt; institution clearly spells out its accountability. Leadership is groomed both at the student level and&lt;br&gt; teacher level in academics, career, programme organization, sports and games and cultural&lt;br&gt; activities through setting standards, measuring performance, ensuring discipline, character&lt;br&gt; formation, and personality building. Quality assurance mechanisms involve the stakeholders&lt;br&gt; namely parents, students, institutions, industry, and community to ensure satisfaction and&lt;br&gt; compliance. Through objective criteria such as results and placement, outreach activities, events&lt;br&gt; and programmes, feedback etc. the institution monitors to maintain accountability. This paper&lt;br&gt; discusses the societal expectation and institutional accountability through a case study of&lt;br&gt; Srinivas Institute of Management Studies (SIMS).&lt;/p&gt;

Notwithstanding its profound contributions to modern Science, Geology importance in Science Education has been (and still is) continuously dwindling. This situation is universal and has historic roots. At the same time, a reintegration of Geology with other sciences has been taking place, resulting in the Earth Sciences. The Earth Sciences concept is better adapted than Geology to new conceptual advances such as Systems Theory, Catastrophe Theory, or Chaos Physics. Nevertheless, caution is of essence when adapting those physico-mathematical theories to a Science whose methods are not mainly experimental but descriptive and historie. One of the present lines of advance in Earth Science Education is based on courses in which biologists and geologists together analyse Earth and Life systems. Viewing towards a farther horizon, we can find courses on Science integrating Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Physics concepts included in the new school curriculum. Although highly commendable in theory, the scheme is probably deemed to result in no real progress towards integrating Science, since it is not accompanied by deep changes in University curricula.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum aims to provide students with problem‐solving skills and knowledge to promote interest in STEM careers. Yet, study of the scientific method, the basis for research and many other STEM careers, is often overlooked. The current high demands for an increased STEM workforce, highlight the importance in developing students’ interest and skills that would encourage career pursuit. The objective of this study was to evaluate and develop seventh grade students’ understanding of the scientific method. We hypothesized that improving students’ understanding of the scientific method would increase interest in pursuing a STEM career. We evaluated this hypothesis by using a physiology‐based outreach activity focused on hands‐on learning and collecting survey data post event. The event was performed at a middle school located in the metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska. One‐hundred and four students participated in one hour of physiology‐based activities led by volunteer faculty, postdoctoral research associates, graduate students, and medical students. Sessions commenced with the volunteers introducing themselves, their career level, and research focus. Volunteers then gave a brief explanation of how science affects everything in the world followed by an introduction to the physiological systems: the eye, or the heart and lungs. Students were lead through a set of activities designed to explain the scientific method scientific method by conducting experiments at two stations centered on the eye or the heart and lungs for 20–25 minutes. The session concluded with 15 minutes of question and answer to allow students to confer with the volunteers about what they just learned, science as a career, and what a scientist’s typical day resembles. A post‐survey was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of the day of activities. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data and factor analysis was conducted to create a “Science Interest” scale. Overall, this project received positive feedback from the students related to learning and understanding science. Sixty‐five percent of students reported that the event increased their appreciation of science. Seventy‐one percent of students reported that the outreach event helped them understand what a career in science is like. Twenty‐one percent of students reported the event increased their interest in science, 68% reported this event didn’t change their interest, and 11% reported that this event decreased their interest in science. Using the “Science Interest” scale (Alpha = .773), 54 (58%) students fit into the “high” science interest category and 39 (42%) fit into the “low” interest category. Students who scored high in science interest were significantly (p&lt; 0.01) more likely to answer “agree” or “strongly agree” on the questions, “This event increased my appreciation of science” and “This outreach event helped me to understand what a career in science is like.” Relatedly, students who scored low on the science interest scale were significantly more likely to respond that the event made them less interested in a science career. Our data suggest that a physiology‐based educational outreach event is effective in enhancing understanding of the scientific method and generation of interest to pursue a STEM career.

An activity for a National Chemistry Week outreach event has been designed in which children construct a periodic table out of LEGO building bricks. During the activity, children followed simple instructions to build the symbol of a particular element onto a 5.25 in. × 5.25 in. LEGO base plate. Squares for all elements were constructed in this manner, resulting in a periodic table composed of over 6000 LEGO pieces. The finished product has been hung on a wall in the science center at Spring Arbor University. The table has unexpectedly become a unique conversation piece that allows for informal chemical education. In addition, high school students and others have added to the charm of the table by designing LEGO creations to place on the squares of certain elements. These LEGO creations are built so as to represent the element on the square on which it is placed. How the table was built, how the construction of the table was used as a hands-on activity at an outreach event, and how people were invited to build LEGO creations to donate to the table are described.

The development and implementation of a scientific outreach activity comes with a number of challenges. A successful outreach event must match the sophistication of content to the audience, be engaging, expand the knowledge base for participants, and be inclusive for a diverse audience. Ideally, a successful event will also convey the importance of scientific outreach for future scientists and citizens. In this paper, we present a simple, hands-on guide to a scientific outreach event targeted to kindergarten learners. This activity also pursued a second goal: the inclusion of undergraduate students in the development and delivery of the event. We provided a detailed set of four activities, focusing on the blind Mexican cavefish, which were enthusiastically received by kindergarten audiences. The engagement of undergraduate students in the development of this activity encouraged public outreach involvement and fostered new scientific and communication skills. The format of the outreach event we describe is flexible. We provide a set of guidelines and suggestions for adapting this approach to other biological topics. The activity and approach we describe enables the implementation of effective scientific outreach, using active learning approaches, which benefits both elementary school learners and undergraduate students.

Many engineering outreach programs use building a bridge as a hands-on activity for multiple grade levels and audiences. South Dakota State University (SDSU) has used bridge building activities, with slight modifications for grade level and time allowed, for over 10 years in outreach at schools and campus workshops. In recent years, it has been noted that the same level of students attending these outreach events are either performing the same or a similar activity at their school or another event outside of our outreach program which has affected the effectiveness of using this activity to stimulate interest in engineering. In the last two years, modifications have been made to create a bridge builder challenge that incorporates measurement, experimentation, simulation, design, and redesign for middle and high school students. Therefore, -incorporation of design standards and performance as well as economic efficiency has been the key to linking science principles to engineering principles. Details of the activity and its implementation are discussed. Background A common goal for outreach activities is to increase the interest that participants have for math and science and, in turn, engineering. In an effort to entice more people to study engineering, outreach activities to schools and through workshops have increased in recent years 1 . One staple activity in many of these outreach activities is building a bridge. Many different bridge activities are available on-line for use in outreach or teaching 2-5 . Contests have been created to build and test balsa wood bridges and also virtual bridges, formerly known as West Point Bridge challenge 6 . The following article describes bridge building activities and anecdotal observations from 15 years of outreach workshops that have featured bridge building.

The author is president of Kyoto University in Japan. Japan has reached an important turning point. After World War II, the miracle of Japan9s economic growth was achieved through technological innovation and a cheap, well-trained labor force. This innovation, however, was based on introducing basic technologies or concepts from the United States or Europe and improving them. The economic success of this “catch-up”9 approach ended about a decade ago because of the strength of the Japanese yen, an increase in labor costs, and the growth of other countries in East and Southeast Asia. To achieve further economic development, Japan must develop breakthrough technologies that promise more benefits. This change is not easy, however, because all sectors of Japanese society—including political circles, the administration, industry, and education—have previously been oriented toward catching up economically. Promotion of basic research is especially important for breakthrough technological innovation. To reach this goal, science and technology policies must be reformed. Science education has an important role to play in this reorientation toward fostering creative scientists. Japan9s educational policy used to focus on raising the overall average of all students. This tended to produce excellent economic foot soldiers rather than true leaders, although it was successful in the catch-up phase of economic growth. The ability to cooperate was considered more important than individuality and creativity, and teachers put more effort into giving students technical knowledge than evoking an interest in science. The Central Council for Education, an advisory body to the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho), is now discussing the reform of primary and secondary education. Its major goal would be to give more free time to schoolchildren and foster their interest in nature, science, and technology. Cultivation of individuality is another important goal. And in higher education, developing the creativity of gifted students is an important challenge. Japanese universities have been undergoing radical changes in the past several years. Many are in the process of curricular reform, faculty development, and evaluation of teaching, in accordance with new policies for science education. University faculties, which used to be rather research-oriented, are slowly beginning to pay more attention to teaching. Before the war, graduate schools were small and attended only by academic researchers. Although the situation has slowly been changing in recent decades, the ratio of graduate to undergraduate students in Japan in 1993 (5.5%) was much smaller than the ratio in the United States (15.4%), the United Kingdom (37.2%), or France (18.3%). Over the past several years, Monbusho has encouraged universities to found or expand graduate schools, and the number of students is increasing very rapidly. It is more important, however, to change graduate education in order to respond to the public criticism that Ph.D. students in Japan are too specialized. Broader knowledge is required to open research frontiers and adapt to the rapid progress of science and technology. Finally, the rapid increase in the number of graduate students has necessitated an increase in financial support. Fellowships for doctoral students provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science have expanded year by year, with 2200 recipients in 1996. In order to promote science in Japan, the Science and Technology Basic Law was enacted in 1995 by the Diet; and in June 1996, the governmental Council for Science and Technology adopted a Basic Plan to achieve the law9s goals. The plan calls for a stepwise increase in research grants from the government, increases in support staff and fellowship programs, and the renewal of research facilities. Although one cannot be too optimistic because of budgetary restraints faced by the government, it is hoped that this action plan will strengthen Japan9s science and technology infrastructure. More important for the future of science in Japan is education, because educating a generation of capable scientists takes longer than setting up infrastructure, and the quality of science education determines the economic and industrial potential of a society. It is especially crucial for Japan now, as it makes the transition from catching up to joining, both economically and scientifically, the countries at the global forefront. Science Next Wave9s Asian Forum

As part of the Science and Innovation Week in Spain, researchers from the Environmental Remote Sensing and Spectroscopy Laboratory (SpecLab) CSIC organized an outreach activity for secondary students comprehending: 1) a dissemination lecture presenting remote sensing history and main applications as well as the laboratory's scientific activities, 2) a virtual tour using virtual reality glasses to explore the international research station of Majadas de Ti&amp;#233;tar, the first ICOS-ecosystem (Integrated Carbon Observation System) station in Spain, where remote and proximal sensing activities combine with biogeochemistry and ecology research, and 3) a visit to the SpecLab laboratory, where students learnt about scientific instrumentation and measured with it.These activities were attended by a group of 8 students from the final year of secondary school (grade 12) who are following a specialization course in physics and chemistry. The aim was to introduce them to the field of remote sensing research, show them the multi-disciplinary nature of the laboratory's activities, and make them aware that many of the scientific contents studied in the school curriculum find their application in real-life geosciences research.We analyse the student&amp;#180;s notes taken at the conference, their answers to questionnaires on the content covered, and their impressions. With this information, we identified a major interest in this type of outreach activities organized by a scientific laboratory: &amp;#8220;the ecology of knowledge&amp;#8221;. Indeed, school knowledge is decontextualized, which means students can construct new knowledge through various activities and relate what they know to what is presented to them. We propose this approach can help students to value their knowledge and stimulate their interest in geosciences.