A Finnish scientist explains science to the public yesterday at Parkson Plaza on Huaihai Road M. An eight-member Scandinavian delegation are in Shanghai to promote science through street performances, part of the ongoing science and technology festival in Shanghai.
Shanghai plans to create its own means of assessing locals' scientific literacy over the next three years, hoping to find relevant policies to promote popular science, city officials said yesterday.
The city's biennial survey of residential scientific literacy is now based on a US template - put forward by Jon Miller of Michigan State University more than a decade ago.
"We have to do a Chinese survey in Chinese way," Yu Zengrong, an official in charge of popular science of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, said yesterday during a China-US popular science forum.
He said the city government will collect successful experiences from all over the world while conducting extensive studies to work out a questionnaire and the weighting of respondents.
In the new assessment, the government will specify the surveys to fit different groups of people such as children, professionals or seniors.
"If we found the scientific literacy of seniors is lower than our expectation, we are likely to open more community-based popular science venues for their use," he added.
He said the US template doesn't fit the city's situation since people of the two countries have a very different understanding of science.
Jon Miller was also invited to attend the forum.