計劃的起源

生物科技是現今不可缺少的科技。生物科技已日漸廣泛被應用於各科學及工業領域包括農業､環境保護､燃料及化學品､飲食､基因複製和醫藥。此科技對商業亦有很大的影響，每年生產總值達過千億。除資訊科技外，生物科技已被看作是廿一世紀另一新技術革命的標志之一。正當本地教育工作者將焦點集中在資訊科技教育之際，西方國家已將龐大的資源投入生物科技教育，以作工業界和學術界橋樑。

有見生物科技教育之重要性，各國開展了一個新趨勢，將生物科技教育由大專課程延伸至中學課程。雖然香港工業署已撥資一億多港元支持多項生物技術計劃，但相對英美日的學生，本地中學生對此科技的知識仍然很貧乏。

透過生物科技教育的訓練，可以得到優質教育的其中一個本質 - 倫理學。因為當生物科技，尤其是基因工程, 應用到人類身上時，刺激了很多生物倫理問題的爭議，引發人類去思想人生的意義。

身為香港科學教育工作者的呂宗偉博士和陳城禮博士希望與計劃的各位顧問､核心成員和先導學校合作，將最新的生物科技知識和對此科技的正確觀念帶給中學老師和同學。

Initiation of the Project

Biotechnology is indispensable in the modern world. It has vast scientific and industrial applications in the areas of agriculture, environmental protection, fuels and chemicals, food and drink, gene cloning, and medicine. Also, it has tremendous commercial impact and has annual production worth thousands of billions of dollars. Besides information technology, biotechnology is another major world trend and characteristic for the 21st century. While most local educators focus on information technology education, the western countries have poured in tremendous resources in biotechnology education in order to bridge the gap between industrial and school sectors.

Due to the importance of biotechnology education, there is a worldwide trend of extending this from college to secondary school level. Though the Hong King Industrial Support Fund has approved biotechnology projects up to H.K.$. $222 millions, the local secondary students have poor understanding of biotechnology, comparing to their counterparts in USA, UK and Japan.

An essential ingredient for quality education is ethics, which can also be trained through biotechnology education. This is because when biotechnology applies to humans especially in genetic engineering, it stimulates controversial debates on bioethical issues and sparks individual's contemplation about the meaning of life.

As Hong Kong science educators, Dr. Lui and Dr. Chan would like to work together with this projects' consultants, core members, and additional pilot schools to introduce to our secondary teachers and students the relevant and updated knowledge as well as positive attitude towards advances in biotechnology.