An Advanced Learning and Teaching Experience on Gifted and Talented Secondary School Students of Hong Kong

Overview

In this presentation, the experience of teaching 54 students, which were mostly selected from the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, will be shared. Soon after the Education Bureau launched the first Gifted Education Fund (GEF) in 2019, this GEF project was delivered in the summer of 2020, consisting of four full-day lessons on mathematics related to STEM, two full-day lessons on psychology, and 4 half-day lessons on research. The STEM lessons included Mathematical theories and 3D modelling techniques, equipping students with the ability to do handmade mathematical models from raw materials and 3D software Tinkercad. The psychology lessons demonstrated the strengths of students through daily activities and how their talents could be used to cope with the adversity in the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the research lessons, eight students were selected to attend the university research group discussion. They were required to give oral presentations on their mathematical models and propose solution methodologies. Some of these research works were very impressive and showed the potential research ability of mathematically gifted secondary students.

A research group on Covid-19 pandemic data modelling in Hong Kong was established in last summer, which was composed of one of these students from the GEF project and two Year Three students majoring in Mathematics and Chemistry respectively. After two months of weekly research discussion meetings, research outputs are very encouraging: two poster presentations have been accepted for the 4th International Conference on Public Health and Well-being in 2022; a Letter to the Editor has been accepted by the Hong Kong Medical Journal; and one full journal paper has recently been accepted by Frontiers in Public Health.