HONG KONG, Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) announced today the launch of a Teaching Kit promoting appreciation of architecture during the kick off ceremony held at the Graduate House, the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
With reference to the International Union of Architects (UIA) Work Programme on "Architecture and Children" Built Environment Education Network, HKIA has developed a debut Teaching Kit for senior secondary school students under the sponsorship of Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) in order to nurture appreciation of architecture, stimulate creativity and encourage critical thinking. A supplement to teaching and learning, the Teaching Kit is tailor-made for specific teaching areas including Liberal Studies, Arts, Science, Design and Applied Technology, and Other Learning Experience (OLE) with research support from the Community Project Workshop under HKU's Faculty of Architecture and assistance from many architects.
Firmly believing that architecture can be perfectly integrated into mainstream education, HKIA formulated the Teaching Kit with active involvement of the Education Bureau and after consulting teachers from various secondary schools. Teachers can relate mainstream teaching areas to the Teaching Kit, whereas students are encouraged to look for additional information from newspapers, books and other reliable sources themselves to enhance their understandings.
Teachers may also best utilize the Teaching Kit together with other interactive student activities, such as project based activities, guided tours and videos.
"Architecture has a cross-disciplinary and interactive nature that embraces knowledge from both humanities and science providing readily accessible examples to help our secondary school students to comprehend their current studies in a real life context. Based on such spirit, this architecture-based Teaching Kit is produced with examples of architecture, both local and overseas, in varieties of teaching method as an excellent collaboration between the architectural profession and education.," said Dr. Wong Wah Sang, Director of the project.
"The Teaching Kit can easily illustrate local architecture-based knowledge and relationship between human being and space to students which enhances their ability in the awareness of our living environment and cultural conservation. It also facilitates the dialogue between architectural professions and education experts in the exchange of academic and professional knowledge, which results in the designing of a suitable teaching kit for senior secondary school students and enriches them with architectural knowledge." said Dr. Yip Wai-ming, Principal of St. Louis School which participated in the pilot stage of the Teaching Kit.
Mr. Lee Kwan Yuen, Principal of Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School said, "I strongly believe that the Teaching Kit would promote education diversity, stimulate students' initiative in the active learning during classes and enlighten them with ideas while joining external competitions." His school also participated in the pilot stage of the Teaching Kit.
"The Teaching Kit is a perfect example of how we architects can contribute to our society," said Mr. Dominic Lam, the President of the HKIA. "We firmly believe that architecture is more than just buildings. It is of high aesthetic and scientific value and can deliver essential knowledge for easy assimilation by our next generation in their formative years. I am glad to see the official launch of this Teaching Kit today. We are also honoured to express our heartfelt appreciation to CreateHK, the dedicated agency set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to spearhead the development of local creative industries, for encouraging and sponsoring us in this project."
To learn more about the Teaching Kit, please visit the following website:
http://minisite.proj.hkedcity.net/hkiakit/
For further enquiry on the Teaching Kit, please contact HKIA Secretariat at hkiasec@hkia.org.hk / 2511 6323.
Disclaimer: Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Media enquiries:
Creative Consulting Group Inc. Ltd.
Ms Polly Tsang / Ms Terre Choi
Tel: +852 2372 0090
Mobile: +852 6108 5435 / +852 6978 3585
Email: polly@creativegp.com / terre@creativegp.com
