The Ministry of Education has recently announced the first list of national pilot zones and schools for science and technology education in primary and secondary schools. One district and four schools from Qingdao have been selected, with the Shinan District being named a national pilot zone for science and technology education, and four schools—Hengshan Road Primary School in the West Coast New Area, Qingdao Binhai School, Qingdao Experimental Junior High School, and Qingdao No. 9 High School—newly designated as first-batch pilot schools.
Combined with seven previously recognized national science education pilot schools for primary and secondary education (including Qingdao Zaoshan Primary School, Chengyang District Lide Primary School, Qingdao No. 26 Middle School, Laoshan District Experimental School, Qingdao No. 2 High School, Qingdao No. 39 High School, and Qingdao No. 58 High School), the city now has a cluster of national-level science and technology education pilot schools, comprising one district and 11 schools, covering all educational stages from primary to high school. This forms a tiered, distinctive, and interconnected Qingdao innovation education demonstration matrix.
Shinan District: Leading Region-Wide, Building a Borderless “Big Innovation” Ecosystem
Drawing on nearly 30 years of experience in marine education, Shinan District reshapes its collaborative educational mechanisms with a region-wide, borderless concept. It incorporates innovation education into the district's “15th Five-Year Plan” and government-commissioned projects for the people, establishing a “1540” three-level innovation education federation structure, with a closed-loop management mechanism of “monthly scheduling plus supervisory visits plus performance evaluation.” The district builds a digital portrait database for students’ scientific literacy, creates the “Shinan Innovation 100 Museums” brand, and develops a 10-minute science popularization circle around campuses, breaking down barriers between school and external resources to form a home-school-community integrated education model.
At the classroom and teacher development level, Shinan District systematically advances science education improvement. It constructs a “Science +” four-type integrated curriculum system, ensures full coverage of artificial intelligence courses across all schools, implements cross-disciplinary project-based learning, and enforces “one student, one research project,” with 100% of students participating in innovation research projects and practical activities. The district builds a five-tier talent team of “innovation education leaders—core teachers—emerging teachers—science and technology counselors—vice principals for science,” achieving full coverage of science vice principals. It recruits dual-teacher teams composed of academicians and experts from universities and enterprises, and uses AI classroom evidence-based systems to enhance teaching research. Several regional educational reform achievements have won first prizes in provincial teaching awards, and a number of “one school, one brand” innovation demonstration schools have been cultivated.
Hengshan Road Primary School, Qingdao West Coast New Area: A Tiered, Replicable Elementary School Innovation Education Model
Since its founding, Hengshan Road Primary School has focused on technology development, earning recognition as a Ministry of Education cyberspace demonstration school and a provincial artificial intelligence pilot school. The school builds a six-tier curriculum framework of “national-local-school-based, basic-extended-advanced” levels, creating a matrix of clubs for programming, maker education, and 3D printing, known as “Little Question Marks.” It equips specialized AR/VR, artificial intelligence, and STEM innovation spaces, and collaborates with universities, enterprises, science museums, and parent classes to form a home-school-community system. Through real-world project exploration, virtual simulation experiments, and competitive events, the school promotes learning through competition. To date, the school has won over 700 teacher and student innovation awards, has 9 provincial-level innovation research projects approved, and its school-based curriculum achievements have earned a first prize in Shandong Province’s teaching awards. It has also hosted national-level education conferences to share its experiences.
Qingdao Binhai School: A Digitally-Empowered, Marine-Featured “Five-in-One” Innovation Campus
Leveraging Qingdao’s marine city characteristics, Qingdao Binhai School builds a “five-in-one” innovation education system comprising venues, curriculum, teachers, competitions, and education federations. The campus features a fully accessible “one museum, two corridors, three rooms” innovation practice space. It offers three levels of school-based courses—universal, club-based, and elite—focusing on marine ecology, artificial intelligence, and wetland protection through project-based learning. The school regularly runs “scientist plus school teacher” dual-teacher classrooms, strengthens special clubs for model aircraft, robotics, and drones, and hosts provincial and municipal innovation competitions. It collaborates with Qingdao University for in-depth research, appoints a full-time vice principal for science, and organizes parent-child innovation experiments and community science lectures, uniting all educational forces on and off campus.
Qingdao Experimental Junior High School: A Leading Junior High School Innovation Benchmark Focused on Experimentation
Qingdao Experimental Junior High School establishes the “Light of Qingdao—Science and Technology Innovation Academy” and the “One Beam of Light” maker brand, building a comprehensive scientific literacy cultivation system. The school has created maker spaces, artificial intelligence laboratories, and biology and geology specimen halls, adhering to the principle of “every subject has experiments, every student does experiments.” It has developed a school-based textbook titled “100 Experiments Students Must Do.” The school constructs a “720” innovation curriculum system, undertakes the city’s junior high school talent cultivation tasks, and supplies a large number of innovation talents for elite and strong-base programs. The school’s innovation education outcomes have achieved breakthroughs, including one first prize in provincial teaching awards and one provincial-level research project. Teachers and students have repeatedly won first prizes in various experimental and innovation competitions, with their educational experiences published in “People’s Education” and shared at national education conferences.
Qingdao No. 9 High School: Inheriting a Century of Polytechnic Heritage, Building a High School Innovation Talent Hub
Founded in 1900, Qingdao No. 9 High School has nurtured nine academicians, including Wang Daheng, and inherits a deep polytechnic innovation gene. The school constructs a “universal—advanced—excellent” three-tier innovation cultivation system, supported by distinctive school-based curriculum resources, and builds a modern science and technology museum integrating artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, and 3D printing. It collaborates with Ocean University of China, China University of Petroleum (East China), Haier, and Hisense to form a “campus—university—enterprise—society” four-dimensional practice platform, establishing a teacher team of “school experts, academicians, and industry engineers.” It uses the “Lixian Lecture Hall” for high-level science education. In the past three years, the school has won over 100 national and provincial innovation competition awards. Moving forward, the Qingdao Education Bureau will use the national pilot zones and school clusters as a core, integrating the “learning by doing” approach across primary and secondary schools, amplifying the distinctive advantages of marine, digital, and polytechnic education, and continuously strengthening science education. It aims to systematically cultivate new-era youth with scientist potential and a dedication to serving the nation through science and technology, using the cluster’s demonstration power to boost Qingdao’s high-quality education development and provide Qingdao’s model for provincial and national science education reform.
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