Today’s world is already running on artificial intelligence. WeChat suggests friends and posts, cars drive and park themselves, and Amazon Go offers checkout-free grocery stores. There is almost no field that has not benefited or been affected by artificial intelligence. In times of paradigm shift, people are rightly paranoid of disruptions. We at Studio believe firmly in preparing children for the challenges of the AI era in their formative years, and there is no better pioneer to lead this initiative than John Dietrich, one of our best and brightest.

We talked with John about how he would go about Scientific Explorations at Studio.

C
John, how do you intend to prepare youngsters for the challenge of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning? Are we all going to be redundant and inferior to powerful AlphaGo and the likes?

J
Understanding how to conduct an investigation and then apply the results of that investigation to a problem, even if it doesn’t seem directly related, is an important skill. As AI takes over pretty much all computational/informational tasks, workers will need to setup the tasks for the computer to complete and be able to draw connections and relationships between sets of data/information (the results) that are not specifically linked. This is where understanding how to think scientifically and do science is important.

C
How does it relate to the whole STEAM initiative at Studio?

J
Scientific Explorations will serve as a way to provide students will the conceptual knowledge and analytical skills necessary to solve problems and engineer solutions. The STEAM initiative has only just started and it is being developed in parallel with our “tech literacy” program. There will be many exciting things coming on stream for the Studio community. So watch this space.

C
How is Studio different from all others in delivering science education?

J
Science education, especially at most weekend schools, is that the classes are focused on simply pre-teaching or reinforcing exactly what is taught in the classroom. I’m designing a curriculum that goes well beyond that, especially in relation to application. Also, the individual attention and flexibility we can offer in small classes means that students can look at the issues they find most interesting or pressing.

C
That’s wonderful. I know that science courses delivered in English are a rare commodity in Shanghai. Sometimes when students are advised to take private tutoring in science to prepare for prestigious high schools in the U.S. and U.K., they cannot find anything available. It would really be great if you can offer something to fill that vacuum. Tell us more about your lesson plans.

J
Each semester (15-weeks) will be divided into three different 5-week units. Each unit will have a central concept (for example: ‘States of Matter,’ ‘Projectile Motion,” “Genetics & Evolution,” or “Stochiometry”) that will be explored through different methods. While the content associated with each concept will be taught, the primary focus will be on thinking like a scientist and doing science.

It will be more about application and the problems presented to students will not solely involve the main concept at the center of the unit. For example, the unit on Stoichiometry (balancing chemical equations) will look at the history of Chemistry as a field, the concepts of chemical bonding & the process of balancing reactions, and then the role of Stoichiometry in the synthesis of chemicals (pharmaceuticals, plastics, etc. according to student interest). While knowledge of Stoichiometry will be important to write intelligently about and discuss the chemical industry, students will also have to think about economic and ethical issues as well.

The current sequence of units will allow for a mixture of chemistry, physics and biology each year. I’ve also included at least one unit of either ecology or earth science in each year. This is a bit different from what is taught traditionally, especially at the G8 & G9 levels. Focussing on a mixture of concepts throughout the year will hopefully emphasize interconnections between concepts that on the surface seem disparate.

  

There are 5 sessions to each unit.

1

Session one will involve an introduction to the concept/topic along with readings about the history of the concept and the major pioneers involved in its evolution.

 

2

The second session would then focus more on the “hard science” of the topic and involve further readings, demonstrations, etc. In a sense, this would be the more “traditional” of the lessons in terms of similarity to what students do in school.

3

The third session will focus primarily on the laboratory investigation for the unit. Investigations will be either “live” or “digital” depending on the topic. As a lead in to the investigation, students will have to think about how this concept has application in their own lives and then design the lab accordingly.

 

One of the real benefits for our course will be the ability of students to explore what they find interesting rather than be forced to complete a predetermined laboratory assignment.

4

The fourth session will deal primarily with manipulating data and writing a report focussed on application — this paper will include the whole range of topical information covered in the first three sessions.

5

The fifth session would then be for reviewing the concept, editing the report, discussing areas for further investigation and presenting the work.

C
Already so well laid out! That’s amazing! Thanks John. James, perhaps you can surmise for us Studio’s vision for scientific education in the artificial intelligence era?

J
Suffice it to say that there is a huge difference between studying science "from first principles" rather than (a) because of any exam system or curriculum (just like with BELLA, the Scientific Explorations series won't be linked to a school curriculum - but that in itself is noteworthy, that it will be deeper than school curriculums); or (b) because of any connections to specific real world outcomes.

There will of course be potential practical outcomes for students, by helping them actually think and work scientifically (about solving climate change problems, for example; or distributing resources in urban planning, bringing in geology and atmospherics and ecology and whatever else; or materials for the red mugs; or researching physics for AI, and all the rest...) but the primary difference between what Studio does and what others do will be to related to working at the fundamental principles of the subject, rather than being (explicitly) linked to outcomes.

In short, our students will actually learn to be good scientists.

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