Labs in life! TSMC Charity Foundation Provides Hands-on Science Education for Students of 95 Rural Schools
TSMC Charity Foundation is highly active in providing much-needed educational resources for Taiwan’s rural schools. Not only has the foundation been running the Rural Vocational Training Program since 2020 to equip school children with specialized skills, but it also promotes the TSMC Action Science Lab Program to impart knowledge in accordance with the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) 2019 curriculum, focusing on making science learning materials for enterprises to cultivate science education. As of August 2022, the foundation has recorded 18 tutorial videos with educational games created by TSMC engineers themselves. It has also handed out 2850 science kits for students to continue learning at home while schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recipients include 95 schools and 30 after-school classrooms, totaling 3,750 people.
Tutorial Videos Help Volunteers Lead In-class Experiments
Science games are the most effective way for volunteers from the TSMC Intelligent Engineering Center (IEC) to teach the basic principles of science through fun and play. To cultivate students’ innovative and scientific thinking, TSMC Charity Foundation launched the TSMC Action Science Lab Program in 2020, which applies the use of everyday objects such as soda cans and newspapers to undertake interesting little experiments. These experiments comprise of three categories—roleplaying, mission objectives, and team competitions—which have been edited into video tutorials to assist volunteers’ teaching in the classroom, which applauded by many volunteers (especially for those who are not engineers). The material has been divided according to student age group, applicability for distant learning, difficulty, and safety, in order to better ensure that students learn the most out of each activity.
Through our video tutorials, we can teach children to use everyday objects and their creativity to find solutions. This way, they learn that science truly is all around us.
I don’t share a background in engineering, so these tutorial videos help me guide them in learning about scientific experiments together!
Tutorial Video Themes under the TSMC Action Science Lab’s Program
| No. | Science Lesson | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cushioning the fall | 5-12 |
| 2 | Pneumatics | 5-12 |
| 3 | Static equilibrium | 5-12 |
| 4 | Atmospheric pressure | 5-12 |
| 5 | Carbonization | 5-12 |
| 6 | Magnus Effect | 5-12 |
| 7 | Non-newtonian Fluid | 5-12 |
| 8 | Oil Water Separator | 9-12 |
| 9 | Jet Power | 9-18 |
| No. | Science Lesson | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Windage | 9-18 |
| 11 | Deposition Tech of IC | 10-18 |
| 12 | What is CO2? | 7-18 |
| 13 | Pascal Principle | 5-12 |
| 14 | Electricity | 5-12 |
| 15 | Neutralization | 5-12 |
| 16 | Freezing Point | 5-12 |
| 17 | Air Composition | 7-12 |
| 18 | Sublimation | 9-12 |
Sample of the TSMC Action Science Lab Program’s Tutorial Videos: Mimicking the “Escape Room” Effect
Science Kits: Six Enjoyable Experiments for At-home Learning
Aside from educational videos, TSMC Charity Foundation has provided students with science kits that contain material for conducting six experiments essential for learning basic scientific principles. While the pandemic kept everyone at home, children had the opportunity to continue their learning journey alone, and then share their experience with fellow classmates and teachers online.
Themes of the Science kit
TSMC Charity Foundation will continue to promote scientific education through its TSMC Action Science Lab Program, which is expected to expand to ten additional elementary schools by December 2022 and will help broaden students’ horizons and future opportunities for growth and learning.