New Perspectives in Science Education

The Davidson Institute of Science Education is the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. We believe in connecting people to science. We initiated a special program - Prism – to view science from different aspects. Through   Prism we would like to stimulate students' curiosity and challenge their scientific thinking. The Prism program targets thousands of junior high, and high school students from all sectors and from across the country. The students and teachers spend a day or two at the Davidson Institute and experience guided visits to the Weizmann Institute's labs, scientific lectures, and cutting-edge experiments. By providing them with hands-on activities in chemistry, biology, and physics, the program challenges students to broaden their knowledge of science, while introducing them to the excitement of research through experiments at Davidson labs that cannot be carried out in schools. Our goals are: to encourage students to pursue science studies in the future and to promote professional development of teachers. Prism offers teachers to select an exciting scientific theme such as The Biggest Questions of Science, for example: what are the applications from nanotechnology research? How a DNA transform to protein?  Another theme is Window to the Frontier of Science, for example: How can biology help to investigate crimes? What are the methods to treat cancer? A theme in the field of chemistry evolves around Inquiry Experiments in the Chemistry Lab such as: what are the steps in wine preparation? Is there caffeine in coffee?  and more options in the different science issues.

Keywords: students' curiosity, scientific thinking, hands-on activities, frontier of Science;