Energy Issues in Korean
EducationHee-chan Lew
Korea National University of Education
13. Feb. 2016
TokyoAPEC Tsukuba ConferenceHomework• Energy issues are being disscused in Korean society
actually. But, in educational areas, the issues are notdealt actively.
• I am very happy to have a chance to think about
energy in STEM perspective including mathematics.
• I had three homeworks on:– What is your major issue on Energy in you economy?
– In relation to STEM, what reform is going on in youreconomy?
– In relation to lesson study for Cross Border, what ispossible

1st Homework
What is your major issue on
Energy in you economy?

Issue 1: Inconvenient truth• About the necessity of new kinds of clean
energy to replace fossil fuels like coal, natural
gas and oil.
• Oil will be dried up within 32 years, natural gas
60 years, coal 133 years, at the earliest date.
• Fossil fuels have destroyed global environment
severely for the last 100 years.
• We need to develop new kinds of clean energy
for maintaining human existence on the Earth.
• Nobody know how it is important and urgent!!

Issue 2: Strategic Decision• What kinds of the new and the renewableenergy we need to develop at this moment
considering our current technical level?
• Government chose the 12 kinds of energy:
sunbeams, solar heat, wind power,
geothermal power, water power, tidal power,
steam power, fuel cell, hydrogen gas,bioenergy, waste material energy, coalliquid & gas• This issue might be the most hot national
agenda as a turning point for the future
development of Korea.

Issue 3: Economic Efficiency• How to get these new kinds of the new andthe renewable energy with lower costs ormore efficiently?
• The essential factor in the energy
development process is how to promote“efficiency of investiment” i.e. we have toget the higher quality of energy with lowercosts.
• This process rquires a very high level ofultramodern technology.

Issue 4: Manpower• How to train experts of jobs related with energy?
And, where?
• It is a integrated job merging IT, BT, NT(NanoTechnology), Agricultural engineering, Chemicalengineering and Industrial engineering.
• This is a huge task to change the structure ofuniversites in Korea.
• Government wants more science and technology
major students in universities to train experts inhigh and intergrated technology areas like thenew and the renewable energy.

Issue 5: Thrift• How to save energy in ordinary life?
• Everybody knows that we have to saveelectricity, heating energy, traffic energy,
water for making slow the shortage ofnatural resource, and the greenhouseeffect as well as for improving our health.
• However, how to practice it? How toeducate students and people?

Issue 6: Energy Intensity• How to reduce Energy Intensity which is
total energy consumption per unit GDP?
• Energy consumption includes coal, gas,oil, electricty, heat and biomass.
• In 2011, Korea used 10726 BTU(1BTU=0.252Kcal) to earn 1 USD. Japan4574, HK 5682.
• It is very inefficient energy consumption.

Issue 7 : National Trust• How to reduce 37 % of BAU amount of C02
emmission by 2030, which is a promise
Korean Government made at the Paris
Agreement on Climate in 2015.
• BAU(Business As Usual) is the expectedamount when we will not have done any
constraint and any effort.
• This might be a political promise, but it is apromise of Korean Government done tointernational society. Is there a concreteroad map to keep it?

Issues 8: Educational Prepareness(Curriculum)• How to develop formal (national) curriculum
related with energy?
• This is not simple task. Curriculum on energy
needs the integrated procedure by educators
working in various areas because “energy” hasvery complex topics.
• Do we need to develop it as an independent
subject or if not, how do we need to determine
teaching items on energy in each of S, T, E, Mand other subjects? For example, how do we put
energy issues into formal mathematics
curriculum which has a systematic hierarchy.

Issue 9: Educational Prepareness(Teacher Training)• How to train teachers to teach students
energy issues in schools?
• We have to develop curricula both ofpre-service and in-service education
which must be designed commonly byscientists and educators.
• It is also not easy step.

Issue 10: Assessment• How to make assessment items to evaluate
educational effect in K-12 educational system?
• It is not difficult to develop teaching materials
on energy for projects seperated from theformal curriculum with a small scale andevaluate their educational effect on theexperimental level. But, it is very difficult toconnect lesson and assessemt on the formal
national curriculum.
• This is another difficult task in Korean society.

2nd Homework
In relation to STEM, what reform
is going on in your economy?

STEAM in Korea• In Korea we use STEAM rather thanSTEM.
• We added Art to STEM and S inclusessocial science, cultural science andhuman studies.

Educational Reform on Energy• We have no educational reform on energy
topic even though it is very very importantissue.
• In my sense, in order to make a reform, weneed to touch with our national curriculumon the national level.
• But it is not possible at this moment.
• Instead, KNUE has developed small scale
experimental teaching materials hoping tomove to the reform at the national level.

Energy related education withSTEM• KNUE project in 2014 supprted by MOE
and Korea Foundation for the Advancementof Science and Creativity• It is a project to develop textbook/teacher’guide to make:– A Plant Factory with sunbeams(grade 3-4)
– A lighthouse with wind power(grade 5-6)
– A Lamp with pro-environment Fuel cell(middle)– A rotating hosue toward the sun(high)A Plant Factory with sunbeams (1)• A natural disaster like flood and drought
has caused a desperate shortage of foodin many countries.
• Can we secure foodstuffs stably without
a problem from natural disaster?
• It is a long desire of mankind• It is a concept of a plant factory.

A Plant Factory with sunbeams(2)• In this project, students study thefollowing things:– By which scientific process, sunbeams arechanged to electrical energy?
– Which vehicles are needed to change
sunbeams to electricity?
– How to change electric energy to light?
– The process of photosynthesis– hydroponics

Making Plant factory andCultivation

A lighthouse with wind power• In this project, students will learn thefollowing things:– The importance of wind power.
– How to change wind power to electicalpower?
– Job related withwind power

Making a lighthouse with windpower

A Lamp with pro-environment
Fuel Cell• In this project, students study thefollowing things:– What is a problem of existing battery?
– The importace of fuel cell.
– Promising jobs related with fuel cell.

Making pro-environment of FuelCell

A rotating house toward the sun• In this project, students will learn thefollowing things:– The importace of sunbeams– How to change sunbeam to electricalenerge?
– What are ideas to promote the efficiency ofsunbeams– Promising jobs related with sunbeams.

Designing A rotating housetoward the sun

3rd Homework
In relation to lesson study for
Cross Border, what is possible?

Customizing• The most important step on the cross-bordereducation is to develop textbooks and assessment
items on energy, which can be used commonly inmany countries.
• We need customizing process for fitting
teaching/evaluation ideas to situations of eacheconomy.
• We need additional meetings to APEC lesson
study meetings of two times per year to focusing
on editing textbook and developing assessment
items for many countries.
• Only if we make the textbooks, we can apply themon the practical classrooms.

• Thank you for your attention!!