ECOSF arranged lecture of renowned scientist of France Prof. Lena at GC University Lahore and FCC-Lahore
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A lecture of Professor Pierre Lena who is one of the three co-founders of La main a la pate Foundation, France was arranged at Government College University (GCU) Lahore on 12 Ma 2017 was arranged by ECOSF in collaboration with French Embassy in Islamabad and GC University.
Prof. Dr. Hassan Amir Shah, Vice Chancellor of the University welcomed Prof. Lena, Prof. Manzoor Soomro, President ECOSF, André de BUSSY, Counsellor for Development And Cultural Cooperation at French Embassy in Islamabad and other distinguished guests at his office in the University before the lecture. Prof. Shah introduced his university to the guests and said that the University is a leading educational institution in the Indo-Pak Subcontinent, where excellence is nurtured, pursued and celebrated since it’s inception in 1864. In 2002, the Government College, Lahore was raised to the status of a University and renamed as the GC University Lahore. The GCU is committed to act as a promoter of quality education for all. He further said that university has 400 faculty and staff among them 51 are PhDs delivering the education to 12000 students. This Institution is one of the oldest seats of learning in the Muslim world. As a seat of higher learning GC University blends grand old traditions and modern educational standards to meet the ideals set by persons like Dr. Leitner, philosopher the poet, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal and the Noble Laureate, Dr. Abdus Salam. The delegates highly appreciated the services of the University to the society.
After the meeting, the guests were guided to the lecture hall. Before the key note speech by Prof. Lena, Prof. Soomro introduced him and described him a senior scientist /astronomist and fellow of Academy of Sciences of France. After retiring from the job, he joined hands with Prof. Georges CHARPAK (nobel laureate) and Professor Yves Quéré and founded la main a la pate Foundation (LAMAP) for promotion of Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) in schools in 1995. After successful promotion and implementation of IBSE in France, LAMAP introduced it in other countries of the world to educate and train more and more students of the world.
Prof. Lena, in his speech, exclaimed happiness being in Pakistan for the first time and thanked to ECOSF and French Embassy for arranging his visit. The title of his speech was “Children and Science : 20 years of pilot projects in science education worldwide”. He said that Critical Thinking is the ability to analyze the way you think and present evidence for your ideas, rather than simply accepting your personal reasoning as sufficient proof. You can gain numerous benefits from mastering critical thinking skills, such as better control of your own learning and empathy for other points of view. For enhancing critical thinking, the education of science is the key tool which provides direction. He further said that we all should think that how can we prepare our children in best way for future challenges. He emphasized that students should be encouraged to take interest in S&T studies so that their skills about curiosity, observation, language, self confidence, creativity, reasoning, etc be developed. He also shared that according to OECD/PISA report in 2006, there was 20% in education section but no change in science education/improvement seen. He proposed that teachers learning drive for IBSE can change the situation and all the segments of life like, government, educational institutes, society, etc have to play their due part in this regard. The science is need of time if we do not educate with our children then we can lose our future. This is untiring and dedicated job and we have to do it at any cost.
After lecture at GC University, Prof. Lena also delivered a lecture at Forman Christian College – a chartered university, Lahore. The title of the lecture was “Climate change and Education in science: an urgency”. During his lecture, he highlighted the importance of the climate change and emphasized on science education with reference to the climate change so that the challenges of climate change can be tackled.
At the end of the lectures, the question/answer sessions were done. The students of universities posed various questions according to the topics which were beautifully replied by the Prof.