Thanks S7S (2003/04) for inviting me to address your Graduation Memoir. I am about to complete my first year in Yao Ling Sun College. This is the first time I realize that the graduation practices is so divisive in this school. To make full use of the given setting, let me ask specifically to you the captioned question, ¡§What does learning Science mean to you ¡K and to your own children in future¡¨?


             Research told that students in science classes see school as being boring and repetitive. We know by experience that most S7 Science students do not regard science as a useful tool beyond gaining good grades in public examinations for university entry. Let me quickly remind you two important purposes of learning science that could be transferred to other disciplines:


             1. to acquire skills for informed and data-driven decision making.

             2. to bridge rational thinking between scientific knowledge, development
                of  technology and application in society.


            Within this ambit, critical thinking, realization of prospective projections and constraints, systematic problem solving, creative model for understanding, etc. are the successful products. Traditional sciences are particularly good at reducing the problem space to simple linear relationships that could be expressed in mathematical equations. New sciences (you have not studied yet) deal with complexity and dynamical systems; something too complicated for linear equations and is better expressed in the form of landscapes and metaphors.


            Real world is always complex. Layers of cause and effects are embedded and intertwined in the details. As a result, it often leads to surprises. That is why there is always room for your generation to explore. Those who get themselves equipped fast gain more. If you think you have some success in preparing for scientific thinking, keep going and equip your own children even earlier. Let them stand on the shoulder of the giant hero so that they could have a wider and further perspective. I wish you all a prosperous future whatever walk you are setting off to venture.

 


Mr. TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac MH
B.Sc.(Hon.), M.Phil., C.Biol., M.I.Biol., Dip.Ed., M.Ed., MAIS, Ph.D. candidate
Principal
5 June 2004