National Pingtung University of Education, Pingtung, Taiwan
Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of 5th NICE conference
E-mail: sjlee
mail.npue.edu.twChemical Education Journal (CEJ), Vol. 15 /Registration No.
15-100/Received February 23, 2014.
URL = http://chem.sci.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/cejrnlE.html
mail.npue.edu.tw
First of all, I would like to say thanks for all of you in making this wonderful 5th Network for Inter-Asian Chemistry Educators ( NICE) conference come true in 2013. Our NICE conference has brought many science educators together to share their research and practical experiences in the area of chemistry. This 5th NICE was held in Pingtung, Taiwan from July 25th to 27th, 2013. It had followed meetings in Seoul, Korea (2011); Tokyo, Japan (2009), Taipei, Taiwan (2007) and Seoul, Korea (2005).
This National Science Council (NSC, Taiwan) supported and IUPAC-Sponsored 5th NICE conference had one plenary lecture given by Professor Sunney I. Chan (California Institute of Technology, USA / Academia Sinica, Taiwan) and three Keynote lectures from Professor Masahiro Kamata (Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan), Professor Dae-Hong Jeong (Seoul National University) and Professor Mei-Hung Chiu (National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan). There were about 150 participants from 8 different countries have registered in our 5th NICE, and 22 sessions for oral presentations. Only 50 posters had been selected and all the presenters were eager to share their latest innovative works and offered prospects on chemistry education.
In order to preserve the outstanding research works to our chemical education community, a special issue of Chemical Education Journal (CEJ) has been organized for the 5th NICE conference. This special issue contains eleven extended articles, seven in research works and others in teaching-learning materials-practices, that have been selected from the papers presented in the 5th NICE.
The first research article entitled "Opportunities for Innovation in Chemical Education" as the Plenary Lecture contributed by Prof. Sunney I. Chan aiming at bringing the new vision of inter-disciplinary chemistry.
In the second research article, "Keywords-based Recommendation System: A Case Study of Civic Chemical Literacy" written by Prof. Chin-Cheng Chou and Pei-Jung Lin. This study explored the studies of the domain of Literacy in Chemistry.
In the article of "Microscale Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles for the Laboratory Instruction", Prof. Shui-Ping Yang demonstrated the new analysis of classroom discourse and instructional strategies.
Prof. King-Dow Su investigated the development of Teaching Strategy in College Chemistry and reported in the article of "Strategic Applications of Dynamic Reaction Figures to Redox Chemistry for Improving Students' Skills in Problem-Solving".
In the article entitled "Comparison and Analysis to Labwork of Chemistry Textbooks of High School between Beijing and Taiwan from the Perspective of Science Literacy" was written by Ying Peng, Prof. Chin-Cheng Chou and Prof. Su-Jing Dong reporting the current international comparison of high school chemistry textbooks.
In "Teacher Education in Japan through Training Program with Experiment Study", Prof. Haruo Ogawa, Prof. Hiroki Fujii and Prof. Akira Ikuo discussed the concerns and findings in their teachers' education and training.
"Learning Difference on Physical Science Concepts between High and Low Achievement Groups at Junior College Chemistry Course" was written by Prof. Kai-Ping Wang and it is concerned with the issues on the students at university level learning physics as a literacy for chemistry.
There were four teaching-learning/materials-practices articles: "Web-based teaching material connecting science and environmental education in primary school and junior high school, Part II" by Setsuko Sato and Kotaro Asano aimed at web-based material with snow and ice for primary and secondary students.
Prof. Akira Ikuo, Prof. Yusuke Yoshinaga, and Prof. Haruo Ogawa pointed out Quantum chemical calculation based materials for college/university students in the secondary school entitled "An Approach to the Electronic Textbook of Basic Chemistry Linking Chemical Experiments". In "Investigating the Relationship between Temperature and Crystal Growth of Storm Glass", Jing-Ping Jong, Ping-Huan Hsieh, and Jian-Zhang Pan focused on solubility and temperature for primary and secondary students.
The fourth one is "When egg meets cornstarch aqueous solution: ooblecks demonstrate thixotropic properties" written by Chiung-Lan Wang demonstrated the practice on materials science in elementary schools and for the general public.
I understand that the selected papers would set up a model
to convey the message to all of our colleagues with current research
in chemical education. Wish you will enjoy reading them all.
I would like express my sincere appreciation to Prof. ITO,
Masato M. and others, for all of your enthusiastic in organizing
this special issue of CEJ. The sponsorships from National Science
Council (NSC, Taiwan) and International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC) on our 5th NICE conference are highly appreciated
as well.
Shyan-Jer Lee, Ph.D.
Prof/President of NPUE
February, 2014