Development of a novel science curriculum about neural stem cells for high-school students in Hong Kong

Abstract

We are a pioneer high school in Hong Kong to develop a neuroscience curriculum for scientifically gifted students (Suen et al., 2010; Suen et al., 2017). Research-based learning associated with neurodegenerative diseases (Suen et al., 2013), brain cell culture (Suen et al., 2008) and live-cell imaging microscopy (Suen et al., 2015) are highlighted in this curriculum. To further nurture high-school students to become a neuroscientist, we develop a new curriculum about neural stem cells. Public awareness in stem cell-related issues is increasing and more and more ethical concerns are raised as stem cell medicine advances. Yet, there is no well-structured curriculum about stem cell science for junior secondary school students in Hong Kong while the elective part of senior form Biology curriculum in Hong Kong contains a short chapter about stem cell therapy. In the present report, we demonstrate the two dimensions of our Neural Stem Cell Science Curriculum (NSCSC): (i) neural stem cell science lessons for all junior form students and (ii) pull-out gifted programme of neural stem cell research for scientifically gifted students. The neural stem cell science lessons are structured based on Renzulli’s enrichment triad model (Renzulli and Reis 1997) in which students will be exposed to three types of learning activities. Type-1 learning activities target concept-building tasks. Type-2 learning activities involve practical skills of the concepts established in the type-1 learning tasks. Type-3 learning activities help students apply their skills and concepts learnt in type-1 and type-2 lesson activities to solve real problems. For scientifically gifted students, they will carry out scientific research about neural stem cells. This research-based learning mode is integrated with the Purdue Three-Stage Enrichment Model in gifted education (VanTassel-Baska and Brown 2007). Some core concepts that all of our students are expected to acquire include the nature of neural stem cells, development and differentiation of neural stem cells, sources and locations of neural stem cells and potential applications of neural stem cells in medicine.