2026 High School Girls’ Traveling Science Camp – STEM Hands-on Camp
Fang-Fei Chou | Vice President, Society of Taiwan Women in Science and Technology
Background
The Society of Taiwan Women in Science and Technology (TWiST) has been committed to promoting women’s participation in science and technology for more than a decade. Over the years, TWiST has organized numerous hands-on STEM camps for female high school students and has long served as a co-organizer of the nationwide Marie Curie Science Camp (hereafter referred to as the Curie Camp).
To expand its local impact and help female high school students identify directions for further exploration in STEM, TWiST partnered with the Chang Chau-Ting Memorial Foundation through its Comprehensive Knowledge Journey project to jointly organize the 2026 High School Girls’ Traveling Science Camp – STEM Hands-on Camp.
The program was co-organized with support from the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan Normal University through the Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Adaptive Learning Platform (TALP) High School Chemistry Project, as well as Taipei First Girls High School, Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School, Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls’ Senior High School, National Hsinchu Girls’ Senior High School, National Hualien Girls’ Senior High School, National Hualien Senior High School, and Changhua County Chengkung High School.
In terms of curriculum design, the program featured special lectures honoring Professor Chia-Li Wu and Professor Chang Chau-Ting, two key figures behind the two organizations, and incorporated a core experimental course from the Curie Camp. Students worked in pairs in an intensive hands-on format, with professional instructors and teaching assistants providing guidance. The activities integrated the assembly of chemical sensing components, software simulation and testing, and real-time measurements of chemical kinetics.
The program also incorporated high school chemistry digital learning resources and after-class assignments from the Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Adaptive Learning Platform. These activities were designed to cultivate students’ adaptive and self-directed learning abilities, with the hope of nurturing more promising future talent for Taiwan’s STEM industries.
Camp Schedule
The camp began its nationwide tour in August 2026. The dates and locations were as follows:
August 10: Taipei First Girls High School
August 11: National Hsinchu Girls’ Senior High School
August 13: Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School
August 17: Changhua County Chengkung High School
August 18: Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls’ Senior High School
August 20: National Hualien Senior High School and National Hualien Girls’ Senior High School (jointly organized)
Program Design and Activities
Each session of the traveling camp was designed as a four-hour program covering special lectures and in-depth interdisciplinary hands-on activities. Students worked in pairs in an intensive small-group format. Each session was planned for 40 to 60 participants, with female students required to account for at least half of the participants.
Although the announcements were issued during the summer vacation, they drew an enthusiastic response and considerable attention from students as soon as the six co-organizing schools posted the information on campus. All places at the sessions across Taiwan were filled within just one week, demonstrating high school students’ strong enthusiasm for hands-on STEM experiences.
Introducing the Society of Taiwan Women in Science and Technology
The program began with 30 minutes of registration and an introduction to the training materials. Principals and administrative representatives from the participating schools were invited to deliver opening remarks and take commemorative group photos with the traveling team.
This was followed by a 20-minute presentation by TWiST Vice President and author Fang-Fei Chou, who introduced the founding history and development vision of the Society of Taiwan Women in Science and Technology to the teachers and students in attendance.
The presentation explained that TWiST was initiated and founded in 2011 by the late Professor Chia-Li Wu (1947–2021) of the Department of Chemistry at Tamkang University, who had served as a member of the Examination Yuan and was also an advocate for gender equality. By 2026, the Society had been active for 15 years and was led by President Chao-Ping Hsu, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica.
The presentation also introduced the Society’s four major objectives: encouraging and fostering women’s participation in science and technology, promoting professional growth, establishing mutual support networks, and advancing international exchange. Through these objectives, the Society seeks to bring together women in science and technology, pass on experience, and support younger generations.
The presentation then introduced the Society’s various activities and its sustained efforts to promote STEM education and foster a gender-friendly environment. In addition to providing the Professor Chia-Li Wu Scholarship for Women in Science and Technology to support outstanding students, the Society organizes the annual Women in Science and Technology Convention, promotes STEM courses and career mentoring at high schools and universities, publishes a newsletter, periodically organizes forums and publishes interviews, and represents Taiwan in the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES) and its Asia and Pacific Nation Network (APNN).
In addition, TWiST actively collaborates with government agencies and businesses to jointly build more equitable workplace environments and enable more women to make an impact in science and technology.
Introducing the Comprehensive Knowledge Journey Program
Following the introduction to TWiST, Chia-Jung Lu, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan Normal University and a board member of the Chang Chau-Ting Memorial Foundation, gave a 20-minute presentation.
Professor Lu introduced the origins of the Chang Chau-Ting Memorial Foundation and its Comprehensive Knowledge Journey series, which currently benefits 40 high schools across Taiwan each year. He also introduced the theme of this program, “A Treasure Trove of Chemistry Education – How to Conduct Chemistry Experiments Well,” and gave an in-depth account of Professor Chang Chau-Ting’s outstanding contributions to science education in Taiwan.
During the lecture, Professor Lu specifically introduced students to the life and contributions of Professor Chang Chau-Ting, one of the key figures in the development of science education in Taiwan.
During his lifetime, Professor Chang worked with Academician Yuan T. Lee to prepare for the establishment of the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, and was also involved in founding Science Monthly, laying a strong foundation for the popularization of science and academic development in Taiwan.
Professor Chang’s selfless dedication to science popularization continued to exert a profound influence after his passing. His example deeply inspired Academician Yuan T. Lee to decide to return to Taiwan to serve, subsequently assume the presidency of Academia Sinica, and promote the establishment of the Chang Chau-Ting Memorial Foundation.
Through this presentation, students gained a deeper understanding of the history of scientific development in Taiwan. It also highlighted one of the camp’s core values: passing the torch of science on to future generations.
Core Course: Phenolphthalein Kinetics
For many years, the experimental courses of the nationally renowned Marie Curie Science Camp have been jointly led and supervised by Jim Jr-Min Lin, Research Fellow at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica; Professor Chia-Jung Lu of the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan Normal University; and TWiST Vice President Fang-Fei Chou, the author of this article.
The core hands-on course of this camp was adapted from a classic experiment of the Curie Camp: “Too Basic to Stay Red: Measuring the Reaction Kinetics of Phenolphthalein Using Optical Methods.”
The first stage of the core course consisted of a 40-minute session on the underlying principles. Through demonstration experiments, Jim Jr-Min Lin vividly explained the quantitative relationship between solution concentration and the transmittance of incident light.
He then introduced, in an accessible manner, the hardware design principles of chemical sensing components, the molecular structure of phenolphthalein as an acid-base indicator, and the mechanism behind its color change. Finally, he guided students in learning how to identify and analyze the rate characteristics of different types of reactions from real-time experimental data, laying a solid theoretical foundation for the hands-on activities that followed.
The second stage of the core course was a 120-minute hands-on session. Because the camp used an intensive format in which students worked in pairs, with as many as 30 groups participating at the same time, chemistry teachers Lifen Zhan and Yueyun Yao from Taipei First Girls High School were also invited to co-teach the session.
Both teachers have long served as resident teachers at the Curie Camp and are recipients of the individual category of the Ministry of Environment’s Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Award. Both have extensive experience leading hands-on science camps.
Students began by setting up the hardware and software for their sensing systems. The activities included assembling chemical sensing components, conducting software simulations and tests, personally carrying out real-time measurements of chemical kinetics, and finally learning how to analyze the resulting data.
Science Challenge Activities and TALP Digital Learning Tasks
One notable feature of the six-school tour was an exhaled-breath carbon dioxide concentration detector personally designed by Jim Jr-Min Lin and scheduled to become part of a permanent exhibition at the National Taiwan Science Education Center.
During the second stage of the core course, the team designed a special challenge activity in which students took turns personally measuring the carbon dioxide concentration in their own exhaled breath.
Through this interactive and engaging challenge, students were able not only to intuitively understand the physical phenomenon of infrared radiation heating greenhouse gases and the sensing design principles of the instrument, but also to extend their hands-on science experience to environmental concerns, deepening their attention to global warming and climate change.
After the core hands-on activity, the program further incorporated digital resources from the Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Adaptive Learning Platform (TALP) High School Chemistry Project. Students were given after-class self-directed learning assignments and received on-site guidance on how to interact in depth with TALP’s generative AI learning partner, e-Du, extending science learning from the classroom to after-class study.
The program concluded with a 30-minute general discussion and satisfaction survey.
The successful completion of the traveling program was also made possible by the many outstanding professional teaching assistants who accompanied the team and supported the hands-on instruction throughout the tour.
The teaching assistant team included Guanlong Chen, project assistant for the Ministry of Education’s TALP High School Chemistry Project; Huanyou Luo, a first-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan University; Yurui Huang, Weili Lin, and Kaijun Chen, all third-year students in the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan Normal University; and four outstanding recent graduates of Taipei First Girls High School.
The four recent graduates were Xinyi Lin and Xianmin Lin, who are currently studying in the School of Medicine at Taipei Medical University; Yu-An Jian, who is studying in the School of Pharmacy at National Taiwan University; and Yu-En Hong, who is studying in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Tsing Hua University.
These young teaching assistants, combining enthusiasm with professional knowledge, moved throughout the classrooms providing careful guidance and were important contributors to the smooth implementation of the camp.
Logistical Challenges and Highlights from the Tour
The six-school traveling camp required the transportation of a large amount of equipment and supplies, including the bulky and heavy exhaled-breath carbon dioxide concentration detector, 30 sets of chemical sensing components, 400 worksheets and folders, and various experimental chemicals.
In addition to cleaning and returning all supplies and equipment to their proper places after each session, the team also had to consider the challenge of traveling to six schools across northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan within ten days.
Because commercial shipping services carried the risk that the materials might not arrive on time, the team decided that two instructors would personally drive and transport the equipment.
The vehicle’s trunk and rear seats were so completely filled with supplies that no passengers could sit there, leaving only the front passenger seat available for one person to accompany the driver and assist with navigation.
Although the long-distance tour was demanding, it also brought some unexpected rewards. On the journey back to Taipei from Hualien, the two instructors responsible for driving and accompanying the vehicle were unfamiliar with the route and accidentally drove into a coastal cliff area in Hualien. From high above, they were able to look almost vertically down upon the blue sea, creating a rare and magnificent surprise during the journey.
In addition, when the tour reached Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls’ Senior High School, TWiST board member Professor Chia Chen Wang, who was busy preparing for the upcoming Asia and Pacific Nation Network (APNN) Conference, made a special trip to visit and encourage the team. Her visit greatly boosted the morale of the traveling team after many consecutive days on the road.
Student Learning Outcomes and Prospects for the Program
The traveling science camp attracted more than 300 participants, with all learning resources provided free of charge.
The program used a pair-based hands-on format and offered a compact and substantial curriculum, together with digital learning resources that students could use for review and extended learning after the sessions.
Based on the enthusiastic and positive feedback from participants, eight major learning outcomes and observations were identified:
Interdisciplinary hands-on learning and technology integration: Students personally operated Arduino systems and chemical sensors, experiencing the interdisciplinary integration of optics, programming, and chemical kinetics.
A deeper understanding of chemical kinetics: Students gained a deeper understanding of the mechanism by which phenolphthalein loses its color under strongly basic conditions and developed skills in data analysis and half-life calculations.
Encouraging reflection on global environmental issues: Through the exhaled-breath carbon dioxide detector, students connected the principles of infrared absorption with the issue of global warming.
Engaging teaching with effective everyday analogies: Participants highly appreciated the approachable and engaging style of the instructors and teaching assistants, who were able to transform abstract theories into accessible examples from everyday life.
Expanding STEM learning opportunities for female students: Participants expressed appreciation for organizations such as TWiST for promoting STEM education for women and providing valuable opportunities for laboratory experience and career exploration.
Providing substantial value for continued learning after the program: The activities effectively stimulated students’ interest in chemistry while also enriching their self-directed learning and learning portfolios.
Reflecting differences in the level of difficulty: Most beginners benefited greatly from the program, although some first-year high school students reported that certain formulas and technical terminology were relatively difficult.
Suggestions for improving future programs: Participants hoped that future programs could simplify some advanced theoretical content, provide more detailed guidance for experimental procedures, and offer more science camps of a similar kind.
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