2021-10-18
From the evening of Oct.15 to early morning of 16, 2021, the China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM), joining hands with the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), accommodated young school students and their families to witness launch mission of Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship while visiting the inner structure of the Tianhe core module and gaining relevant aerospace knowledge, playing its role as the China Space Station Science and Innovation Experience Base.
400 plus people from more than 150 parent-child families from primary and secondary schools in Beijing got this cherished opportunity to celebrate China’s another space exploration effort.
At 19:00 p.m. and 21:00 p.m. on October 15, a special program "Exploring the outer space again" of the China Central Television (CCTV) made live broadcast of event in the CSTM twice to introduce the highlights of the activity to national audience. The program also set special interview linkage between aerospace experts and on-spot participants to make the manned spaceship Shenzhou-13 event an aerospace festival to thousands of families.
Using its reserved science communication resources and platform advantages, the CSTM developed a string of interactive activities with featured themes and novel forms for both the on-spot young students and their escorts and the families nationwide who were watching the live broadcast in front of televisions.
The CSTM made full use of China’s modern science and technology museum system with Chinese characteristics to connect school students, aerospace experts, science museums and media technologies to bring forth immersive experience of the launching story.
The activity was accompanied with permanent theme exhibitions in Children’s Science Paradise and the Glory of China, short-term exhibition of S&T innovation and achievements celebrating the Communist Party of China (CPC) centenary and supporting science education programs including "Science painting the future" and "Leaving your footprints in the aerospace".
Under the guidance of science instructors, the participants feel the unique charm of aerospace science.
At the featured astronomy class, science instructors helped the participants observe the starry sky, explore the mysterious universe and travel back and forth in times with optical planetarium.
The special effect movies “Travel through times” and “The birth of the Earth” and the VR interactive activity of the space station brought the participants amazing immersive experiences.
At the West Hall of the CSTM, the participating teenagers and science instructors acted as various components of China’s space station and the Long March-2F carrier rocket and vividly demonstrated the whole process of the launching of the carrier rocket and docking between spaceship Shenzhou-13 and Tianhe core module capsule.
The activity also invited experts from Beijing Planetarium and the astronomy society of Beijing Normal University to guide the young participants to observe the starry sky, and invited Yin Rui, instructor of the China Space Station Science and Innovation Experience Base and deputy commander-in-chief of the division of engineering and astronauts of the CMSA, and Wu Bing, chief designer of the China Space Station to deliver detailed lectures about the development of China’s space station and manned spaceflight.
The invited experts encouraged the participating teenagers to grow up as determined and upright talents to serve the motherland in their lectures.
A special voluntary program “Joining hands to communicate science” was carried out to provide considerable services to the participants. Most of the volunteers were teenager students from primary and secondary schools in Beijing.
With the aim to arouse teenagers' enthusiasm to explore the unknown
and make innovation, the activity achieved good social effect and became an online hit receiving the most shares and likes.
As the China Space Station Science and Innovation Experience Base, the CSTM is expected to carry out more manned spaceflight education and innovation activities and build itself a platform for China’s young students who have real interest in aerospace science get together and China’s science media outlets better communicate aerospace science, thus enhancing scientific literacy of the Chinese citizens and cultivating future aerospace talents for the motherland.
Tag: China Science and Technology Museum, Science Communication, Science Venues