The Office of the Organizing Committee of the National Science Week (NSW) co-hosted a demonstration event for 2016 named Science Popularization in Tibet, together with the Department of Education, Science and Technology (S&T) of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC), Municipal S&T Commissions in Beijing and Shanghai, and S&T Departments in Shaanxi Province and Tibet Autonomous Region. The initiative was held in line with the instructions given by President Xi Jinping in his important speeches, especially “science popularization is as important as S&T innovation”. The aim was to act on the decision of the National Conference on Innovation, deliver the innovation-driven development strategy and share quality resources of popular science with residents, especially young people and ethnic minorities in remote poverty-affected regions. 

On the morning of 1st July, the demonstration was launched in Lhasa Normal College. After the ceremony, the service team visited the innovation lab it had donated to the Haidian Primary School in Lhasa. In the afternoon, experts visited the Tibet Natural Science Museum scheduled to open soon, and had a discussion on the preparation, operation and personnel training of the museum and joint exhibitions. Wrapped up on July 8th, the demonstration organized activities in four primary and secondary schools, namely Haidian Primary School in Lhasa, No.7 Middle School in Lhasa, Kong Fansen Primary School in Ali Prefecture and Huoer Village Primary School in Pulan Prefecture.

As part of the initiative, over 10 activities were staged by some 30 experts from 12 organizations, namely the National Institute of Education Sciences, China Fire Museum, Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing Planetarium, Beijing Sustainable Development S&T Promotion Center, Beijing Stomatological Hospital of the Capital Medical University, Beijing Tongren Hospital, S&T Museum of Beijing Xicheng District, Beijing Donggaodi S&T Museum, Shanghai S&T Museum, Guangdong Science Center and Shaanxi Nature Museum. Such activities included being a maker based on the Internet of Things (IoT), the making and test flights of motor gliders, classes of astronomical science, fire control knowledge sharing, lectures of eye diseases, oral hygiene lessons, hands-on classes of space and aviation, space maker experiments, natural science experiments, “crazy science show” and training sessions for science teachers.

In order to enable local teachers to continue popular science education after the departure of the service team, thus leaving a lasting impact, the service team donated 5,000 sets of science popularization materials, worth more than 500,000 RMB yuan, to the local communities. Such a donation included the BitLab and IoT equipment donated by the Wuxi ARX Electronics Co. Ltd.; Lego Robots donated by the Beijing Semia Technology Co. Ltd.; micro machine tools donated by the Shanghai SIEG Machinery Co. Ltd.; as well as motor gliders, astronomical telescopes, 3D printers, DIY materials for aviation and space makers, equipment used in maker activities, animal and plant fossil samples, consumables of natural science experiments, and popular science books and discs.