(May 11. Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Today, economic growth is no longer efficiency-driven: it is innovation-driven. Innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs have become the critical human resources of economic development. According to Buckminister Fuller, "All children are born geniuses; 9,999 out of every 10,000 are swiftly, inadvertently ‘de-geniusized’ by grown ups". If this is so, we should create and maintain a conducive atmosphere so that the innate talents and capabilities of our children, our sons and daughters, will grow and blossom, expressing their full potential. To this end, the atmosphere in both formal education our children receive in schools and in higher educational institutions, as well as in their non-formal education, will prove extremely important. In regard to the informal education of children, and their parents as well, science and technology parks have proved to be invaluable.Science and technology museums came into being in the early years of the 20th century. The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in the USA, the Deutsche Museum in Munich, Germany, the Science Museum in London’s South Kensington in the UK and the Paris Paliais de la Decouverte in France are some of the first such museums to be established; they still draw large crowds of visitors every day. When they were first built, the exhibits were placed in display cabinets with an explanatory text about them; and the visitors had hardly any hands-on experience because interactive objects were few and far between.
A revolutionary change in the approach to and presentation of science and technology took place in museums and science centres in the 1960’s following the Russians’ launch of their Sputnik space satellite into space ahead of the Americans. In view of this spectacular progress by the Russians, the Americans began to question the way science was being taught in their country. Educational experts stressed the need to facilitate and strengthen the learning and discovery process by offering more exploratory opportunities for the visitors to the museums and science centres. This gave rise to a new generation of museums, and building of science and technology centres in North America, for example, the San Francisco Exploratorium in the USA and the Ontario Science Centre in Canada. Such hands-on learning centres provide not only education and fun, but also arouse and foster interest and curiosity through well-known psychological levers, which appeal to the senses and imagination of visitors, and promote innovative and creative thinking. The enthusiasm for science this arouses helps ignite innovative and entrepreneurial passion.
The new concept of ‘exploratoriums’ then took root in various cities in the UK, in Scandinavia (for example, the Heureka Science Centre outside Helsinki) and in continental Europe, revolutionising the educational centres and challenging the concept of what a ‘museum’ was and what its purpose should be. This new trend was facilitated by the advent of the new information and communication technology (ICT) and multimedia technology, which combined to give birth to many thought-provoking and brain-teasing interactive exhibits. These hands-on objects engender great excitement among the visitors, providing mental stimulation and fun for young and old alike.
Such non-formal educational centres have become very popular throughout the world wherever they have been built. They now exist all over North America and Europe, in every Scandinavian country, South Africa, and many countries in South America. There are nine in Australia. (For a recent list, see http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwn/sci.html. They are popular because they provide the ‘7Es’, namely education, entertainment, "edutainment", enlightenment, excitement, enthrallment and enrichment, to the visitors irrespective of age and educational background. With the advent of ITC, "infotainment" has also been added. Because of their popularity among the general public, they have been able to humanise and demystify the sciences, and have established a strong interface between science and society.
Innovation and creativity are innate and inborn in man
"By its very nature, all human kind desires to know". So begins Aristotle’s Metaphysics, one of the most famous books of philosophy. He says "‘There is the never-ending delight, we take in our senses: the joy of hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, seeing and understanding".
Desmond Morris, the famous British behavioral scientist and the author of the Naked Ape says "One of the great joys of being human is being a member of the most innovative species that the planet has ever seen. Nothing matches us in this respect. Innovation is our most important quality and it is the secret of our unprecedented success" He goes on to say that innovation needs extremes while mediocrity breeds stagnation. When disaster strikes and life suddenly becomes intolerable, people must innovate or die. Social chaos often leads to outbursts of human ingenuity. Thus innovation is at its best in the contrasting conditions of miserable chaos or glorious luxury, and its worst when there is a humdrum, low-level of existence.
According to Morris, "We humans have an inborn appetite for activity. We are addicted to change, and exploring the environment is part of a deep seated way of our life. We have succeeded because we possess an unspecialised body that is capable of exploring many different ways of solving any particular problem. Evolution has equipped us with insatiable curiosity, so that we never stop inventing new solutions. The evolutionary reason why humans are such great innovators is that our species has evolved its special features by a process called neoteny - a process in which juvenile features are retained into adulthood. Thus like children, we are always ready to try out something new, to use it to our advantage.
Perhaps our zest for life may have been suppressed, but genetically it is still there inside us, smouldering away beneath heavy layers of negative learning. It is not easy to strip off those layers, but it can be done. If we can just find one area of activity where we feel the throb of uncrushed enthusiasm, we may be able to intensify it and expand it, until it blossoms into an exciting form of personal expression. It is there lying dormant to be developed, because it is an essential part of what it means to be a human being".
Science and technology centres as a means of engendering a culture of innovation and creativity
Science and technology parks are of relatively recent origin in Asia with the exception of countries such as Japan. However, planetariums, which can help inspire enthusiasm for science and awe at the marvels of the universe, have been in existence for several decades in Asia. Though they have been mainly used for education in astronomy, the planetarium environment can be used for other multi-media programmes in many disciplines including graphical designs. Musical and drama programmes also often find the planetarium to be a unique environment for innovative productions. The planetarium established in Sri Lanka has been attracting school children from practically every part of the country for several decades. Given the size of the population in Sri Lanka and the difficulties for school children in remote areas to come to Colombo to visit the planetarium, it seems justifiable to have a few more in the country. A broad-spectrum educational planetarium of medium size should be established in universities such as Peradeniya, Ruhuna, Jaffna, Eastern and Rajarata to create interest in and enthusiasm for science and technology in children, university students and young people in the region around these universities. By way of comparison, Minnesota in the USA, with only one fourth of the population of Sri Lanka, has 10 planetariums while Sri Lanka has only one. In order to make Sri Lanka comparable to Minnesota in this regard, she should have 40 planetariums. This clearly shows the need to strengthen and expand the planetariums in our country.
Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Korea have already established modern science and technology parks. Malaysia established theirs in Kuala Lumpur in 1996, with a view to creating a science-literate society so that a work force with high level of knowledge and skills in science and technology could be developed. Looking at present day Malaysia, it would seem they have at least partially achieved this aim already.
Development of a knowledge-based economy through a knowledge society is fundamental to making Sri Lanka a developed nation. Central to the development of a knowledge economy is the capacity of the nation to innovate and create value in all economic sectors. This basically involves generating novel ideas that can be transformed into innovative products and services.
The Nobel Prize laureate for Physics in 1986, Prof. Gerd Binning, says "New ideas are generated only when people receive enough new stimuli. Man must start to dream. He must not allow himself to become embroiled too much in day-to-day affairs and must constantly create room to manoeuvre. Breaks are extremely important if new ideas, or connections between existing, but isolated knowledge, are to reach our consciousness. Anyone who wants to work creatively needs time out".
Planetariums, science and technology parks, exploratoriums and such like can provide stimuli and generate innovative and creative ideas with economic potential. Such non-formal educational centres can foster imagination and enthusiasm for learning by providing opportunities for experiential learning and discovery. This will contribute significantly towards creating a culture of innovation and creativity. Such centres of creative learning can offer programme to suit different age brackets including nursery and pre-school children, school children, students of institutions of higher education, adult learners, knowledge workers and senior citizens, all in keeping with the concept of life-long learning. To take one example, at the National Science Centre Malaysia (NSCM), programmes and activities such as Little Explorer and Budding Scientist are specifically tailored for nursery and pre-school children based on the belief that it is never too early to learn about science and technology.
A Sri Lankan science and technology centre could arrange brief scientific exploration sessions during week ends for children and students by inviting leading scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, university professors, and similar people to come and talk about their work. These talks could be done as demonstrations, using hands-on exhibits in the centre to promote creative thinking and to ignite the innovative and entrepreneurial passion of young people. Our outstanding scientists can serve as role models for the young Sri Lankans, exciting and stimulating them by showing them what they could become, so that they would blossom as our country’s scientists, technologists, innovator, inventor and entrepreneurs of the future.
In addition, such non-formal education centres can conduct programmes and activities aimed at complementing and reinforcing formal theoretical learning at school through hands-on and interactive programmes. Programmes such as Science Wonders and Fun Science, conducted by the NSCM are some examples of what can be done.
With the advent of ICT, "cybermonks", which are part of the programmes on meditation can also be introduced, affording a spiritual dimension to such centres providing interactive objects through which visitors could have not only hands-on and minds-on learning, but also hearts-on learning.
In these centres subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, IT, biology, and the environment can be presented in ways that provide a lot of fun, excitement and marvels; they can become very popular with children and young people. For instance, when the Mathematikum - a centre for math games - opened at Giessen, 2
Germany in 2002 with a floor area of about 1,000 m2, some 100 interactive objects, and separate conference facilities, it attracted about 135,000 visitors in its first year along. It has now become an integral part of the town, and the townspeople are very proud of it. This Mathematikum has made mathematics an enthralling subject among the children in Giessen.
During the Silver Jubilee exhibition of the University of Ruhuna in 2003, a "magic show" conducted, by the Department of Chemistry, became a great crowd puller attracting many school children. They were greatly excited and enthralled by the marvels of chemistry. When a Sri Lankan science centre is opened, it will be useful to invite such excited visitors, of all ages, to make entries in the Visitors’ Book, expressing their ideas, suggestions and comments; this will help identify budding scientists and technologists with innovative and creative power in different disciplines. Innovative and creative circles can then be set up, inviting such promising children and young people to join, thus promoting a culture of innovation and creativity.
To rekindle interest and enthusiasm in natural sciences and technology, particularly among young people, Germany declared 2004 as the Year of Technology. During that year, businesses, universities and some 80 scientific associations in Germany got together and came up with ways to bring high-tech to life through more than 2500 events all over in the country. They developed a "ship" with a play area full of technology called MS Technik that travelled through the whole of Germany. A similar vehicle full of technological ‘toys’, the Nano Truck, travelled along the roads, presenting the tiny miracles of nanotechnology, arousing curiosity and fostering creativity in children and young people. Such vehicles can also be used in Sri Lanka to arouse interest and excitement in the children and young people of our country.
The IQ (mathematical intelligence), EQ (emotional intelligence) and CQ (creative intelligence) of our children are not second to that of any nation in the world, but because of the lack of conducive atmosphere, the inborn talents and capabilities of most of our children will never blossom to express their full potential.
The President has declared 2006 as the Year of Children and has created a new Ministry exclusively for Children’s Affairs. Therefore, it is quite fitting to make a start this year towards establishing a Science and Technology Park in Sri Lanka, advancing the Mahinda Chintanaya. The University of Ruhuna has been contemplating such a project, for some time; in a similar spirit, it has already established some business incubators to give a leg-up to budding entrepreneurs in the region. The University of Ruhuna is in the process of developing a proposal to set up a medium- sized wide spectrum educational planetarium at the University.
Establishment of a Science and Technology Park or Exploratorium in Sri Lanka would engender a culture of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, producing innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. It would undoubtedly fast track the technological development and industrial growth, making a new Sri Lanka, in keeping with the Mahinda Chintanaya. The University of Ruhuna will be very pleased to join hands with the private sector to set up a science exploratorium. Foreign countries such as Germany, France, Japan, Korea, Finland, Sweden and Norway may also support setting up a National Science and Technology Park if they are approached with a sound proposal. We hope that proposal to build a National Science Centre of Sri Lanka will receive the attention of the relevant authorities in our country, and that it will be a reality before long!
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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